Today's daily lesson comes from Genesis chapter 3 verses 22 through 24:
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
In his book "Choosing to Live" my friend Jerry Campbell reflects on his journey through the process of grief following his wife Veta's passing away. In the process of his grief, Jerry remembered a dream he had two decades before:
"I dreamed that I was sleeping when a messenger from God appeared before me. The messenger wore a long, brown robe with a large cowl. I could not see the messenger's face. Suddenly I became aware of the messenger addressing me with a question . . . 'What is the most brilliant and important characteristic given to humans?' Without pause the answer jarred me wide awake! 'Death.'"
After the Couple ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, the Snake was sent to bite the dust, the Woman was made to have pain in childbirth, and the Man was made to eat bread from the sweat of his brow. These were the curses.
But then there was a blessing also. The Couple now knew they were naked and vulnerable. So the LORD sewed for them garments of skins (some rabbi somewhere said these were snake skins!) to clothe them. This was the first blessing after the fruit was eaten. Then, in the the very next sentence, there is God's concern that now the Couple can eat of the fruit of eternal life and, afterward, the LORD's decision to send the Couple out of the Garden of Eden. I've always known that after the curses the clothes were God's blessing. Jerry's dream has helped me to see that expulsion from Eden and its consequence -- death -- is also.
Death is a great motivator. To know that we are dust and that to dust we shall return brings to us consciousness. We are vulnerable. It is a dangerous world. There are snakes out there. And we are running out of time.
To know that we will die is the first lesson in knowing what it is to live. And to those who use that knowledge -- to love and serve and spend time and build up treasure where treasure has ultimate meaning -- it is a great blessing. The blessing of knowing that tomorrow is not guaranteed awakens is to the blessing of today.
After Jerry was awakened by his dream he says he made his way to the bathroom, reflecting on the meaning of the night visitation he wrote in his journal. "Humans are born to die; death is the boundary that gives meaning and urgency to life . . . I know it was a dream, but I can't shake the feeling that God has sent me a message."
Me neither.
An additional thought on this is that it was a grace that God knew if we were to be saved we would have to be saved through death. God then crossed the boundary to walk and even die with us in the valley outside the garden.
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