Better Than Cut Flowers…

 

When was the last time you bought yourself a nice set of fresh cut flowers, took them home, found a nice vase, and set them at the center of a table?

You bought them because it made you feel happy somewhere inside. You knew they weren’t going to last forever, but every time you passed by and saw them, you appreciated the way they lit up the room. It made life a little bit more beautiful.

After several days, you notice a wilting leaf, then a fading flower. By the end of the week, you understand the end is near. After several weeks of admiring and then replacing the fresh flowers, you notice a nice bouquet of plastic flowers at the store and think this might be a better choice, they will never die, unlike the fresh ones. So, you bring them home and set them up as you had done with the fresh ones each week for the past month. There you go, you think, I’m done having to replace these flowers every week, and it will be cheaper too!

You pass by the vase of plastic flowers and think you have made a good decision. The weekend comes and goes, and you don’t have to buy replacement flowers. Yes, you think, a good decision. You see the fresh cut flowers at the store and smile to yourself at the money you are saving each week. Yes, life would be nicer with fresh flowers, but this is easier and cheaper.

Weeks go by and you think nothing of the fresh cut flowers anymore. The irony is - you don’t think about the plastic flowers either. Passing by the plastic bouquet doesn’t bring you as much happiness as you thought it would, but, you think, it’s still easier. You start to become numb and forget the joy the fresh flowers had brought you.

The next time you see the fresh-cut flowers for sale, you feel a little piece of you wanting them again. So, you get a fresh batch and replace the plastic ones, even knowing you are committing yourself to do this every week. You ask yourself why? What’s the difference? The plastic ones were pretty as well, and easier!

The difference is life!

In the same way that taking care of a houseplant, or a pet, or a child brings life into you, this thing we call life brings us an energy that can’t be matched by lifeless things.

When Jesus promised us life to the full, He wasn’t promising us a lifetime full of lifeless things – cars, houses, plastic flowers. He was promising us a life of the living energy that only He can provide to the full.

Yes, living things pass on. Sometimes quickly, sometimes not so quickly.

But the life that Christ offers us is a life eternal. Many religions try and point us towards a happy life, or a content life, or a purposeful life here on earth. How many religions bring God to man to build a life eternal? How many have a God that came to earth to live as one of us, and then be mercilessly killed, only to rise again to validate His conquest over death and the lifeless alternative Satan offers. It is by defeating death that Christ is able to offer us eternal life.

Eternal life is so much more than the lies of Satan, or the words of wisdom other religions offer to try and help us make it through this earthly existence. Life is important, life energy is important, but let’s receive all the life we are capable of receiving from Jesus, which does not end with the passing of our earthly bodies.

The totality of our existence is more important than the limited time spent here on earth, yet people will allow themselves to be consumed with this little piece of earthly time. The short-sightedness of that worldview is sad, the result of that short-sightedness is tragic.

In John 10:10, Jesus promises us life to the full, why would you want anything less?