Living Lent – Day 31

Read… Mark 12: 18-34

He is God not of the dead, but of the living.


Interesting to read this passage the day after my wedding anniversary! I suppose that it’s not an uncommon question, where people have been married more than once, perhaps following the death of their second spouse.

But for me, the point of this exchange between Jesus and the Sadducees (who were trying to trip him up) is that the life that we receive as God’s gift after death will be very different from the life we now live.

We imagine it to be all the best things we've experienced in this life, but the reality is that we don't know and can’t imagine what it will be like, because it’s totally beyond our experience.

We will be different, and what makes us happy will be different. So that the joy of marriage (or indeed, the joy of single life) will seem like nothing compared to the joy of being with God.

In the pleasures of this life, we catch glimpses of the joy of the life to come. But it will be better than we can imagine and we must trust God with the detail!

A Prayer: O Lord, give us such a hope and expectation of your coming Kingdom that we are sustained through all the grief's and difficulties of life. We look forward to something we cannot know, but since all we know of you is good, help us to be sure that the future life is better than anything we can ever imagine.

Ponder… What do you find exciting about the ideas of resurrection and life in the age to come? And what makes you anxious?

Pray… FOR OUR COMMUNITY We pray for children and young people each Sunday morning. We thank God for the work Kathryn has done in Sunday Live and pray for Julie as she continues to lead this group. We pray, too, for the new team running Bubbles, and thank God for their energy and enthusiasm. FOR THE WORLD We pray for all of those who are called to teach children and young people about the love of God. We pray especially that teachers may have access to Bibles so that children and young people all over the world may be enabled to hear and read the stories of Jesus in languages and in ways that they understand.

Act… Sit still for 5 minutes and listen to your breathing.