“What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!”
What!? Living is a bad thing?
It sounds odd. The God who created man and gave him life now frets over the idea he might live forever? God, you made us to be alive, what is so bad about being alive without end?
What if?
The Life Giving, Creator being afraid of His creation living almost makes Him seem short sighted and conflicted at first observation. But what if He sees beyond what we see?
What if you had the possibility of something much better?
What if you could be far more fulfilled, be something far more beautiful and have an existence beyond what you can dream here and now?
Think of a caterpillar. (Not bulldozers and heavy machinery, although I think those are pretty cool:)
A caterpillar only knows feeding and surviving potential danger day after day. Some caterpillars are helpful and some caterpillars are very destructive. There is not much to a caterpillar beyond consuming things to survive and avoiding danger. (Read more about Butterfly Life Cycle here). 
What if there was a possibility of something much greater? What if a caterpillar had the opportunity to fly with beautiful wings and help facilitate life for plants which in turn helped facilitate life in many ways for all kinds of organisms?
The condition for that to happen? The caterpillar’s existence would be temporary.
Our existence is somewhat defined by our experience. Our experience tells us what is and what is not. Our experience encompasses what we see and what we know. This is a marvelous volume of knowledge and understanding. Much more so than a caterpillar. If a caterpillar could intelligently speak with you, think of all the things you could teach him. It would blow his little mind.
Then you get to the part where you explain to him he can have an existence far beyond what he has ever known but he would need to go through a metamorphis that would end his existence as he knows it.
What will he do?
What would you do?
God isn’t short sighted or double minded. His intention was always the same and He had the fortitude and far-sightedness to assure the possibility of something better for His creation.
We were never meant to have an existence of just consuming things and avoiding danger. This world is broken at the core. Sin separated us from face-to-face connection with our loving Creator God and it leads humanity to consume whatever it can for survival and avoid being consumed by something else. We were meant for more than this and the only way to have that possibility is to leave this existence behind for a new one.
There something much better than this. You can be something far more graceful and beautiful, someone far more fulfilled and delighted than you can imagine in this temporary existence. (More on Graceful here)
I am gonna fly and you can too!
“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
2 Corinthians 5:1, 4-5, 15, 17 NLT
Related links:
- Your Opinion Of Jesus Is A Matter Of Life And Death
- Repurpose
- How To Ruin One Night With The King In Two Simple Steps
- Daily Post
GK: mysterion 