“Nothing lasts forever”, the saying goes. Indeed, most of the things we make or build are impermanent: even the great pyramids are eroded by the desert winds. Our relationships seem impermanent too: every person has experienced loss in their lives: a “falling out”, an irretrievably broken relationship, or the death of a loved one. Is everything passing? Is nothing lasting?
Christianity offers a definitive answer to this question. God is everlasting, and God loves the world so much that he gave his only son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in him might not die, but receive eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
What does this actually mean? No, it does not mean that Christians can’t experience physical death: in fact, Jesus himself died painfully on a cross. But Jesus rose from the dead, and God will resurrect those who believe in Jesus, just as he resurrected Jesus himself. And for we who believe in Jesus, the life we will receive at this resurrection is the eternal life of God, a life that cannot die.
If this is really true, then it’s not actually correct that “nothing lasts forever“. People do. One consequence is this: of all the things we do in our lives, those things that touch people are the things that are most permanent. In the end, it is not monuments that last, or works of art, or great works of literature. These can perish, they can be lost or forgotten. Rather, it is people who can last forever, human beings like you and me, because God loved the world so much that he sent his son Jesus to give us eternal life.
Agapios Theophilus
Agapios Theophilus is the "nom de plume" of a catholic layman who has loved Jesus from when, as a young boy in the 1970s, he first learned about him. His First Communion, at the age of seven, was the happiest day of his life, and he celebrates its anniversary each year. He lives in a large city with his beloved wife, two wonderful children, and an affectionate orange and white cat. He has no formal qualifications whatsoever to write about Jesus: he writes only because he has been given the great gift of knowing and loving him, and he would like others to come to know and love him too. See Agapios' posts at https://sites.google.com/view/agapios-theophilus and follow Agapios on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/a9apios
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.