This year I’m hopping right over Halloween … heading straight to Thanksgiving, so, every time I see a Halloween display, I begin to praise aloud for the goodness of God in my life. Yesterday I wrote about the first of three things that struck me when I walked around my neighborhood and saw so many of the homes decorated for Halloween. The first thing I came to understand about my dislike of this day is that Halloween is darkness and I am a child of light. [Colossians 1:12-14]
The Second: Death versus Life. One of the houses I passed on my worship walk last week was decorated with nothing but skeletons and tombstones. As I walked past, I began to praise my LORD for life! My body may one day succumb to a temporary death, but my soul and spirit are going to soar right past that grave and into the beloved arms of my Savior. And even my old body will one day be transformed!
“Just as we have borne the likeness [the body] of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven [our Savior Jesus Christ].” [1 Cor 15:42-49]
Our Christianity is all about life! Jesus promised, “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” [John 10:10]
Because of all that Jesus did through His sinless life, His death for us on the cross, His resurrection and ascension and His exchange of His righteousness for our punishment … death has lost its hold on us! We live! We live now in the power of God’s Spirit! We will live forever in the presence of our God!
Even though I am aging, even though I know that one day this temporary body will cease to function, even in these “later” years of my time on earth, it is never, ever, about death. It is about the joy of life, about the freedom that is coming! Halloween can keep its death, skeletons and tombstones, I am thanking God today for L I F E!
