Life after birth .....Day 30 Lent 2015

Day 30 Lent 2015

"If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s."  Romans 14.8

Death.  I have to tell you that I'm not afraid of death, but I'm not looking forward to dying!  I think that sums up the feeling that many folks have.  We know what we have here on earth and the thought of leaving these things is, well, it's kind of depressing.  For me, it's not death that's depressing but the 'opportunity cost' that death represents.  To not be there as my family navigates the joys and trials of life---will that is sad.  And in the case of life that is taken way to soon, it is again the opportunity cost of 'unrealized potential' that I mourn; what could and should have been. 

In Our Greatest Gift, Henri Nouwen tells a parable of faith and hope. He imagines twins–a brother and a sister–talking to each other in their mother's womb:   The sister said to the brother, "I believe there is life after birth." Her brother protested vehemently, "No, no, this is all there is. This is a dark and cozy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us."  The little girl insisted, "There must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move." Still, she could not convince her twin brother. 

 

After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, "I have something else to say, and I'm afraid you won't believe that, either, but I think there is a mother."  Her brother became furious. "A mother!" he shouted. "What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head? As I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not such a bad place, after all. We have all we need, so let's be content."

 

The Christian life is lived between the sister and the brother in this mythical womb.  We are at once to be content and fully present in the gift of the moment; nevertheless we are also to be those who realize that there IS a 'mother' out there and that this present reality is only a foreshadow of what is to come.   So Paul has it right, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's--and that is the most important thing of all!

 

A prayer: "Dear Lord, may we live content in what you have given us; while being hopeful of that which is to come.  Amen"