Before Abraham was, I am.

John 8.51-end

Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.’ The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, “Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.” Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, “He is our God”, though you do not know him. But I know him; if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ Then the Jews said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

Here we are promised that we 'will never see death'.
It's a curious statement, and once that needs to be carefully thought about. Having faith does not mean that we won't die any more than it means that a 'Christian life' is always going to be an easy one; we will all suffer, to some degree at one point or another, and we will all die. Those two, I think, are certainties of life. I've written before about God being with us through both the good and the bad...but what about this idea that we won't see death?
I think it applies to two parts of our lives - our lives now, and then our life after we die.

Now, it gives us assurance that with God our spiritual lives will always have life...yes, there will be times when God feels far away...even those 'dark nights of the soul' when God seems too far away...but Jesus here gives us comfort that even in those times life can be found in our spiritual lives.

After death, we can be confident in Jesus' promises that what awaits is life everlasting, in God's nearer presence.

It's a hopeful message in these sombre times.


(...and, as Dumbledore said in the Harry Potter series, 'happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light'. (J.K. Rowling) )




For a prayer idea... what about making a prayer tree? It could be made out of anything, as long as you've got 'branches' to hang prayers from...prayers for people and situations that are on your mind and in your heart, or maybe a 'thankfulness tree' of things you'd like to thank God for, or a mixture of both.
It may be that you only choose to make prayer leaves (or even just to collect sticks from the garden to gradually build up the prayer tree) from now until the end of Holy Week)...then on Easter Day you could celebrate by adding a riot of colour (perhaps with the origami lilies and leaves suggested in the 'boredom buster' section?)


♫ Time for another (very!) tenuous link.
On the theme of everlasting life... how about animals that were extinct but came back to life, at least in fiction? Jurassic Park theme