Epiphany
February 7, 2017
Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 30:15-20
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. –Deuteronomy 30:19-20
“What is life?” is a complicated question in our world today. The word “life” used in the scripture above is defined from the Hebrew in Strong’s Concordance as consisting of earthly felicity combined (often) with spiritual blessedness*. Life as earthly happiness combined with spiritual blessedness probably would not be in most of our definitions. We likely would get clinical describing life as the presence of breathing or not. The breath of life is Biblical too**. When discussing end of life issues, we often talk about quality of life, which might get closure to felicity. Deuteronomy may be saying that earthly happiness is contingent on spiritual happiness. I call that being in sync with God. I think this scripture implies an eternal status with an earthly interlude.
All life is God’s. All life is sacred. All life is eternal. We are called to be respecters of life; we do not control it. My experience working as a social worker in a children’s hospital reshaped my thinking on life refocusing my purpose. Because the hospital was a trauma center, it was the last, best hope for critical situations. In one year, I worked with eight such situations involving children who died from child abuse or neglect. I did not keep count of the hundreds of abused or neglected children who cross our thresholds who were saved. Several of these were left to live out their lives with permanent disabilities. Prevention of child abuse and neglect become the focus of my life. While restoration is an imperative, total avoidance of the damage from child abuse or neglect is a far more credible course.
I never questioned that each of those children who died rest in spiritual blessedness in God’s arms for eternity. I have always questioned why we live in a society that cannot provide for the felicity of God’s children during their earthly interlude. Ending poverty, providing training for parents, the availability of quality physical and mental health care, and assuring quality education at all levels would be a great place to start.
Prayer: Jesus, you said let the little children come unto me***, help us to understand that loving little children is a quest for all of us. Amen.
*http://biblehub.com/hebrew/2416.htm
**For example, see Genesis 2:7
*** See at Matthew 19:14