Hold Life Closer

Life is an endless wonder. I turn my living eyes around me here in my living room to consider the kitten we recently inherited, named Sunny…I stroke her soft fur as it vibrates with her incessant purring. She does her kittenly best to interrupt my keystroking with her sensual nuzzling, which I reward with a moment or two of loving caresses.

My eyes continue to rove around the room, here, or at work, or on the road in my car, and my vision enjoys ever and anon the panoply of living wonders that surrounds me: the lush greenery of full-blown springtime that approaches the sunbathed fruitfulness of summer; the scurrying creatures that maintain their habitat among us oddly clothed bipeds with our elaborate dwellings and our monstrous machines; the known and unknown human beings populating my home, my neighborhood, my town, my company, my church—each one with his or her own unique life story and point of view as complex and scandalous and charming and unbelievable as my own.

I know I take my own life for granted, even life itself, wondrous gift that it is. I know that to do so is a bad thing. Life is too precious to be taken for granted. It ought to be appreciated, savored, cherished, made the most of. Why? Because it is fragile and will be over far too soon. This is a motivation for treasuring life that all of us agree upon. Death is a reality, therefore, enjoy life while you can.

But when Jesus came into the physical universe as one of us, He offered us a higher, grander, truer reason for us to cherish life. He came to be among us, not just to give us a great example of how to live life and how to face death. Jesus’ life and death accomplished a great deal more than an example for us to follow. The Incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection of God’s Son was God’s way of restoring the fullness of life as it was originally intended to be.

Death became a horrific reality because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, but because of Jesus’ obedience to all of God the Father’s requirements, death itself was overthrown. Jesus was raised from the dead because death had no claim upon the innocent, perfectly righteous Lamb of God. And now, for every human being who depends upon Christ alone for a right standing before God, death no longer has any claim upon us either.

My love of life is no longer motivated or haunted by a fear of death to come. I can laugh in the face of death—its sting has been ripped out. Because my Jesus faced death and judgment in my place, I can hold His gift of life close to my breast like a warm kitten, knowing that its joy will never end.