A Lighthearted Discussion On Death

Yesterday I found myself in a conversation.

One of the things I love about talking to people is that I usually try to say certain things, and the wrong words come out.  But then I follow where those wrong words lead me and I arrive at a whole new thought.  Such was the case yesterday.

I found myself talking about the Bible and sort of the overarching theme of it, and God’s “big picture” in a way.  The way I described it was as follows.

God created us for a purpose.  There’s a reason we’re here.  Our lives were created in a certain way and for a certain reason.  (I feel I should clarify that I’m referring to humanity as a whole.)  God created human beings with a specific life in mind.

Genesis describes it this way:

God created human beings in his image, blessed them, and told them to be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over fish, birds, creatures on the land, and he gave them plants for food, and He said it was good.

There was life that God designed.  As the story of Genesis continues though, another option is brought up.  Evidently, God warned that if a particular tree were eaten from, the said eater would surely die.  Kind of a serious punishment for the crime, in my opinion, but nevertheless – those are the rules.

We all know how the story goes.  But I guess the way that I see it is simply this.  We have life.  God has designed a kingdom for us to live in.  And if we choose to live outside of that reality/kingdom/plan/etc., it is not really life.

And if something is not living, then what is it?

It is dead.

Death is the absence of life.  And God spelled out life pretty clearly there in Eden.

As I read the Bible I see it often as God saying over and over to us [humanity], “Live.  Please!  Here is real life.  It is eternal!  It is joyful!  It is the only thing that will satisfy you!”

The choice was Adam’s.  And the choice is ours.