It Didn't Just Happen

That was the name of one of my science textbooks in high school. Learning about creation from a biblical perspective was just one of the many perks of homeschooling.

But thankfully learning about God’s omnipotence is not limited to school hours!

It is no “coincidence” that this morning I “happened” to read a particular chapter from Randy Alcorn’s devotional, 90 Days of God’s Goodness.

In light of what happened yesterday, it was very comforting and convicting. It was so good I’m going to share most of it with you here.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 17-26

"…The promise of resurrection is what overshadows all present evil and suffering and assures its definitive end. Resurrection, and what it means to live forever in the presence of our God, is–or should be–what we live for.

…Here, we have bodies and we work, rest, play, and relate to one another–we call this life. Yet many have mistakenly redefined eternal life to mean a disembodied off-Earth existence stripped of human life’s resurrected (which means embodied) beings, what life on Earth at its finest offered us. We could more accurately call our present existence the beforelife rather than calling Heaven the afterlife. Life doesn’t merely continue in Heaven; it emerges at last to its intended fullness.

…The resurrection means that the best parts about this world will carry over to the next, with none of the bad; hence, what we forgo here will prove no great loss. Only the resurrection can solve the gigantic problems of this world–and resurrection cannot come without death.

Without this eternal perspective, we assume that people who die young, who have handicaps, who suffer poor health, who don’t get married or have children, or who don’t do this or that will miss out on the best life has to offer. But the theology underlying those assumptions presumes that our present Earth, bodies, culture, relationships, and lives are all there is–or that they will somehow overshadow or negate those of the New Earth. What are we thinking?

The stronger our concept of God and Heaven, the more we understand how Heaven will bring far more than compensation for our present sufferings.”