Day 41: More Than Mundane

Read: Genesis 5:30-32

When I was in high school, in my world history class, the meaning of life came up in conversation. My teacher paused when my classmates began discussing this and then shared her conclusion that she thinks there is really no point to life. We go through grade school to get into college. We go to college to get a good job. We work for a while to be able to retire. Then finally, we (hopefully) live ten to twenty leisurely years until we die. There is not much more to it than that, she said. Her face showed that this conclusion was unsettling to her. There has to be more to this life. 

After each person listed in the genealogy in Genesis 5, the same statement is written: “and he died,” (other than Enoch). Even though these men lived far longer than people today could dream of, there was still an end. They all died. 

The same goes today: there is an end to the life of every person. Even before we come to that point in life, we are reminded of our mortality as we hunger, thirst and become tired. These reminders of our mortality ache and hurt because remind us that death is not what we were created for. We were created for more: eternity.

Charles Spurgeon said, “The repetition of the words, ‘and he died’ woke the thoughtless hearer to a sense of his mortality and led to his coming to the Savior.” The repetition of death in the genealogy points the reader to the Savior who comes at the end. Just the same, our mortality today reminds us that there is more to this life than what is at face value. 

God gives meaning to the mundane. He feeds our hunger, quenches our thirst, and invites us to rest. He even gives us hope in the midst of the sadness that this earth holds. And yet, these are only shadows of what is to come. One day, we will live forever with God with no hunger, thirst, or death. We will simply live. We will live with the God who gives all things meaning.

Today when you are hungry, thirsty, and tired, I encourage you to pause. Thank God that there is more to life than what is at face value. Praise Him for the eternity to come and ask how you can live in light of that today.