Death Is Not Natural · 30 January 2016
After thinking about my own earthly father’s mortality, I have come to the conclusion that death is not natural.
We have been convinced through countless generations of living and dying that dying is just a natural part of life. I would contend that it is a lie. Death was never part of the plan. God told the original people to be fruitful and multiply. In the beginning, He never said anything about going back to being the dust of the earth. He just said to be fruitful.
Oh. And he told them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Therein lies the rub. When it comes right down to it, when people chose to disobey God, they chose death. They knew the consequences and yet they did it anyway. The original sinners (they were both together at the first bite) chose to be apart from God, which is death.
I suppose that lesson of natural consequences falls on deaf ears even today. We know the hazards of certain actions, and yet we do them anyway. We know if we spit in the wind, we will get spit on ourselves. We know if we eat too much, we get indigestion. We know if we watch too much TV, our brains rot. Yet we do them all anyway. And we take the consequences.
Which is what we have been doing since the beginning. We look for love in all the wrong places instead of looking for God to fill the God-sized hole in each of us. We choose death instead of life.
Which is what I started talking about in the beginning.
Death is not natural. We have just known it for so long that we believe it is. We know that with the exception of two people (Enoch and Elijah), everybody dies. All but those two have ended up turning back to dust. And so we think that death is natural.
Somebody could probably point out the theological flaws in my thinking, but I would argue that the text backs me up. That the first man and woman chose to disobey and thus chose death. It is all right there. (Read Genesis.)
Even if people do not agree with my theological premise, they can feel it in their hearts. We all know deep inside that death is not natural. Even if it is normal. We know because we feel it when we lose loved ones. It is that pain that comes from grief. From the loss of relationships when people die. We know we cannot be with our loved ones again. We know only their memories remain. No matter how much we wish it was not so.
I am certain that I cannot be the next one to please God enough not to see death. For all have sinned. And even though the blood of Christ has washed away my sin, I am flawed. Too flawed to come into the Father’s presence on my own merit. And yet, all I ask, all I live for is that when I stand to be judged, the Lord says to me, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
As I think of my earthly father and his mortality, I think of him in front of our heavenly Father. I look at his children and grandchildren, his friends and his family, and I hope that God sees what I see. I hope that God says to Dad when he leaves his frail earthly body, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For that is the man I see even as I watch what could be his final days on earth.
I know that my relationship with my earthly father will continue even after he is gone. I know that I will see him again when we both stand before our heavenly Father. For we have both chosen to serve the living God. We have both chosen to follow God’s original intent and have a relationship with Him. A relationship that will last through eternity.
I do not know how long I have with my dad, but I know we will meet again when he leaves. And regardless of what everybody says, I know that while death may be normal, it is not natural. For God never intended it to be.
© 2016 Michael T. Miyoshi
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