A God of the Living?
A reading for Monday, December 9, 2013: Matthew 22:23-33
"He is a God not of the dead, but of the living."
I wonder sometimes if we can truly know what that simple phrase might mean? It seems pretty straightforward, however we live always in the shadow of death. That's not meant to be scary or morbid, but more than anything else as humans one of the things that makes us different from all the other creatures of the earth is that we are aware of our own mortality. We live each day of our lives knowing that we will die. The hope for all of us, no matter what age we are, is that the day of our demise is long into the future... but we are aware that it's out there somewhere.
So because of that we act differently. We save and we store and we seek safety and security. Nobody wants death to come early, so we take all the steps necessary to keep the reaper busy in someone else's field and not in our own. There are other ways too. There is pressure to get all we can out of this life. Make hey today, for we know not what comes tomorrow.
The economy of God is different, says Jesus. The creation of God is for everlasting and beyond. The life eternal has no factor for death, and so one of the hindrances in our ability to see the life that God promises is our preoccupation with death. If all we had ever known is pencil drawings of heaven, (to use an image from a famous story about a child born and raised in a prison, never having seen the outside world) than how would we ever be able to comprehend the vast colors, smells and sounds of the creation that God promises in the Kingdom.
The God of the living promises much more than we can ever hope for or imagine. Thanks be to God.
"He is a God not of the dead, but of the living."
I wonder sometimes if we can truly know what that simple phrase might mean? It seems pretty straightforward, however we live always in the shadow of death. That's not meant to be scary or morbid, but more than anything else as humans one of the things that makes us different from all the other creatures of the earth is that we are aware of our own mortality. We live each day of our lives knowing that we will die. The hope for all of us, no matter what age we are, is that the day of our demise is long into the future... but we are aware that it's out there somewhere.
So because of that we act differently. We save and we store and we seek safety and security. Nobody wants death to come early, so we take all the steps necessary to keep the reaper busy in someone else's field and not in our own. There are other ways too. There is pressure to get all we can out of this life. Make hey today, for we know not what comes tomorrow.
The economy of God is different, says Jesus. The creation of God is for everlasting and beyond. The life eternal has no factor for death, and so one of the hindrances in our ability to see the life that God promises is our preoccupation with death. If all we had ever known is pencil drawings of heaven, (to use an image from a famous story about a child born and raised in a prison, never having seen the outside world) than how would we ever be able to comprehend the vast colors, smells and sounds of the creation that God promises in the Kingdom.
The God of the living promises much more than we can ever hope for or imagine. Thanks be to God.
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