It Beats the Alternative?

One of my employees had a birthday this week, and sent me a text asking for the day off.  When I responded with wishes for a great birthday - and day off, he shared that he found aging a bit depressing.  I answered quickly that aging beats the alternative.

I've meditated on my easy - downright glib - response this week.  Does aging beat the alternative?  I guess the answer to that question depends on what happens when we die.  If you're a person who believes that death = extinction, then you probably want to have as many birthdays as possible, whatever your quality of life.

I remember when my grandmother turned 80.  She was convinced that she would be going home to be the Lord that year (in fact she lived nine more years).  By 80 she had already outlived most of her friends and family.  Though today 80 doesn't seem so very old, in the 1970's most folks who were 80 didn't get around very well or very much.  She was stuck at home without the prospect of the variety of experience most of us enjoy... and that was her reality for the rest of her earthly life.  The alternative sounded pretty good to her.  

Before I was a follower of Christ, I feared the extinction of death.  It was terrifying to believe that I would be here one moment, and cease to exist in another.  It never occurred to me at that time that the very abhorrence of the idea of extinction pointed to the fact that we were made to live eternally.

If you're a Christian, you understand life as a journey toward heaven - life eternally with God.  In the Christian world view, humans are created for life, and in the "hereafter" will continue living - some with God, and some eternally separated from Him.

But in the Christian world view life eternal is also much more than life in the hereafter.  A great deal of Jesus' teaching concerned the Kingdom of God, and he made it clear that the Kingdom is a present reality as well as a yet-to-come promise.  Life in the Kingdom is one of great variety and delight -- even if you're stuck at home like my grandmother was.  It is an existence charged with meaning, and the enjoyment of the unconditional love of God.

When you get right down to it, aging (more birthdays) or the "alternative" is all of a piece in the Kingdom.  Maybe that's why those closest to the Kingdom live with so much peace and joy.