Garden Decision 2

John 17:3

“And they lived happily ever after.” Most of us are familiar with that phrase. We hear it all the time at the end of bedtime stories, fairy tales and fables we heard as children. While intended to be a positive statement it can be kind of dismissive – you don’t need the details; they were happy! End of story.

Unfortunately many the faithful believer has a similar approach with faith. What are we to do in our faith? We are to accept the death and resurrection of Christ. Then we are saved. We live happily ever after.

We seldom go into much more detail than that. Accept Christ. Be saved.

But Jesus sums up this happily ever after in a single sentence. What is he describing? What is it?

In his prayer to God before the arrest and crucifixion Jesus makes statements about all that he has done in his ministry and all that he wants to have happen with those who believe in him. He asks God to be with his disciples after the crucifixion. He prays for all who will hear the message of salvation.

But before giving the details of doing work for the kingdom, Jesus begins with the declaration that he has the authority to offer eternal life. And then he defines eternal life. It is knowing God and knowing Jesus. Eternal life comes when you are familiar with and understand who God is and what He is all about. Eternal life is understanding and thoroughly being aware of the sacrificial love of Jesus.

This is a difficult concept to grasp (it is much easier to take the “happily ever after”), but I believe we enter into the eternal nature of God, the everlasting life of God when we have learned to appreciate and value God. When we truly recognize the self-inflicted pain God gave Himself through the crucifixion we see love in its purest form.

God showed pure love when God (the Father) allowed God (the Son) to suffer on the cross for us. When we recognize the importance and the weight of such a decision we can enter into that God-flow of God-love and become more and more like Jesus was.

To be part of that happy ever after we must appreciate the decision of Jesus and learn to imitate it. We must learn to make those garden decisions, to choose to give of ourselves in love.

DAILY CHALLENGE: What can you do to help others enter into the eternal life of knowing God?