At the Feet of Jesus by Joanna Weaver – Day 7
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21
Death was not a part of God’s original plan. You and I were made for life—life eternal. An eternity lived in the company of our Maker and each other.
Unfortunately, our great-great-not-so-great-grandparents Adam and Eve decided they wanted more than what God offered. So they bit at the serpent’s bait and attempted to seize control.
Consequently, the Father had to limit their freedom. He banished them from the garden and blocked access to the tree of life (Genesis 3:22–23). As a result, death was given access to beings who had been created to live forever.
Does that sound harsh? Though God’s actions might seem extreme, we must understand the punishment was birthed out of great mercy.
Just think. Without death, the evicted Adam and Eve—not to mention you and I—would be assigned to an eternity of lonely wandering. A 24/7 life of hopeless toil and meaningless monotony. An empty existence bereft of the constant sense of God’s presence Adam and Eve had once enjoyed.
God’s mercy and grace marked our lives here on earth with a finish line. And with sweet irony, our loving Father took the very thing we’d feared the most—the threat of death—and turned it on its head. Transforming tombs into doorways and our endings into new beginnings. Turning hearses into glistening carriages to carry us to a glorious mansion being prepared as we speak—the eternal home for which we were made (2 Corinthians 5:1).
“Where, O death, is your victory?” Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:55 as he considers our final destination and the vehicle that will get us there. “Where, O death, is your sting?”
Through Jesus Christ, “death has been swallowed up in victory” (verse 54).
—Lazarus Awakening
Read: 1 Corinthians 15:51–55
Reflect: How does God’s promise of heaven renew your hope?
Excerpted from At the Feet of Jesus by Joanna Weaver. Copyright © 2012 by Joanna Weaver. Excerpted by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
