Livin Lively

By Peggy Lively

            I heard a story on the radio of a woman who had been told she didn’t have long to live. So as she anticipated her impending death, she began to plan her own funeral service with her pastor. She discussed things like the music she wanted played and the Bible verses she wanted read at the service. Then she told him that she wanted to be buried with her Bible in one hand and a fork in the other hand.

            When the pastor asked her about the significance of the fork, she said that there were so many times at Church fellowships while she was eating that someone would say to her, “Keep your fork.” When she heard this, she always knew that the meal wasn’t over yet. There was something else to come …something better.

            She wanted people to understand that when she died, her life wasn’t over yet. There was something else to come…something far better. This is what she asked the pastor to explain to everyone when they saw the fork in her hand. She wanted her friends and family discussing that her life wasn’t over, but that the best was yet to come!

             Do you have this assurance? The Bible tells us that we can: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”  (I John 5:11-13, NIV) Again in John 5:24, Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”(NIV)

            God has given us eternal life through His son Jesus Christ, and by believing in Him, we cross over from death to life. Our life doesn’t end with death; it finally begins. “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (I Corinthians 15:19, NIV) But praise God that our hope isn’t for this life only! We have hope for eternal life with Him. So keep your fork.