If you had the option to live your current life here on earth forever, would you choose to do so?
We recently went to a play put on by a local high school. Tuck Everlasting. It was a new story to me. Is it new to you? If so, I'll tell you a little bit about it quickly and painlessly:
Jesse Tuck drank water from a magic spring that causes him to remain the age of 17. Forever. No death, no aging. None of that nonsense. His parents and his brother also drank the water. Jesse has been the age of seventeen for 102 years when Winnie, a young girl, stumbles across "17 year old" Jesse and they become friends. Eventually Winnie learns about the magic water and has to make a choice. Drink the magic water, become immortal. Or not.
It seems like an easy choice.
You might surmise that the decision for Winnie is obvious. Drink the water, little girl!! Stay young forever!!
Often I find myself in the company of my little grandson. I'm 63. He's one year old. The math is simple, the facts are painfully clear. I most likely will not be alive still to experience much of his young adulthood.
And I pray as I hold him close. For him as he learns and grows, for his parents as they raise him, for his older brother as they grow up together. I ponder what the years will bring to all my children and grandchildren. I pray for them all. And I'll be honest, sometimes a tear slides down my cheek.
Would I drink the magic water if it were given to me? Would you?
In the stage play, the Tuck family urged Winnie to not drink the water. They grew to view immortality as a curse. They had been stuck at the same age, never progressing to the next step in life. Or death. Jesse would forever be doing only what a 17 year old would do. Watching those around him mature and live full lives. And then having the pain of watching those around them die, one by one. While his family lived on in a perpetual rerun of life happening to everyone but them. Never dying. But.... never really living either.
Winnie didn't drink the water.
As Jesse would tell Winnie: "Don't be afraid of death Winnie, be afraid of the un-lived life. "
The life we live is a series of hills and valleys. Really sweet, wonderful times peppered by seriously tragic, sad times. The good, the bad. It's life. It's beautiful. It's bittersweet.
At age 17, I questioned why life had to include watching my dad lose his battle with leukemia and die. But it wasn't the end of my life. There was plenty of good to come. And, of course, plenty of bad. At age 63, I look back and see that God used everything that happened to me, good and bad, to make me who I am. It's okay. It's very okay. I am indeed living life.
So there's no "magic water" that will keep us young forever. But scripture tells us that Jesus offers us living water. " But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life." John 4:14
Jesus gives us living water!! "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will have life everlasting." John 3:16
If you could choose between living life forever here in this imperfect world, no end in sight..... or living our truly brief life here with hope and strength for each day, and with the promise of eternity in heaven where there is no sorrow, no pain, no more death, no more troubles....?? Good news! You CAN choose!! I don't know about you, but to me that seems like a seriously easy decision to make. My dad made that decision. He's waiting for me. Along with so many others there with him.
And.... I'll be waiting too. For my family and friends. For the little guy in the above picture. The hope of heaven with the circle unbroken makes this brief life so much better.
Reach out to Jesus. Drink the water He gives!
Would you?
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