I find great consolation in the Resurrection. I find deep inspiration in the reality of life after death; that death is but a portal to the next level; that life goes on beyond my present reality. For many, life after death is a stumbling block. Given that everything eventually ends and dies, they find it hard to believe that life goes on after death. It is for them a mystery for which there is no answer but the final snuffing out of life.
Yet life itself is another deep mystery. I am here alive, a reality which I neither asked for nor did anything to deserve. Life itself is a tremendous gift. Of the many lives that have been, are and will be, mine is unique and one of a kind. Because I am unique, I am special. I bring into the world a story like no other. I draw a picture of life and bring colors to this existence like no other has, does or will ever. There has never been one like me and when I am gone there will never be another one like me. My uniqueness in my guarantee that I shall live forever.
Because I am not repeatable I am not an object that can be the subject of scientific study, which is premised on the repeatable and the predictable, neither of which I am. I can only be encountered and experienced in my uniqueness and for what and who I am. I may sometimes pattern my actions, thoughts and behavior after people I love and admire. Still, I do this in a manner that is uniquely and entirely me.
How many more of unique persons like me can there be before God says: “That’s it. I am done with creation.”? I wake up every morning with hope and excitement – there is another glorious sunrise. I end the end in joy and gratitude – there is another awesome sunset. I look at the heavens and see the numberless stars and endless galaxies with awe and wonder – there is Someone out there who just ceaselessly creates so much goodness and life that I partake and share in. He is the God not of endings but of beginnings, not of the dead but of the living.
And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is God not of the dead, but of the living.”
Mark 12:18-27