I have the perfect Christmas gift for you! Actually, Christmas is too far away. How about buying it for a birthday present, or maybe simply buy it as soon as possible. (I am totally kidding.)
A recent children’s book was published by philosopher Gennady Stolyarov II. This children’s book tries to show that death is wrong, and should be defeated through medicine, science, and technology. According to Amazon, “You will learn about some amazingly long-lived plants and animals, recent scientific discoveries that point the way toward lengthening lifespans in humans, and simple, powerful arguments that can overcome the common excuses for death.”
Remember this is a fully-illustrated children’s book. One that almost seems humorous if it were not so sad. This book is an attempt to explain death apart from life in God.
What perspective should we be teaching about death? If we are honest, we rarely teach anything. Few of us think about it, and even fewer are willing to talk about it. When is the last time that you heard a sermon about…death. It is almost considered a taboo subject – too depressing, and too morbid.
However, a healthy perspective of death leads us to a healthy perspective of life.
Is death wrong? The answer to this is yes. Death is the result of something that has gone wrong. In the beginning, God created a perfect world, and made man and woman to have fellowship with Him in the garden. Death was a result of sin.
Death is truly wrong.
But death is now also right.
Death is right because death will mark the end of this life, and the beginning of everlasting life in heaven. Death is right because it will mark the end of our battle with sin and satan. Death is right because it was defeated by Jesus when He rose again, and secured a way for us to be reunited with God.
A healthy perspective of death calls us to embrace life. A healthy perspective calls us to embrace aging. A healthy perspective calls us to embrace our future as finite humans – not with fear, but in faith.
