Prison, heaven or boredom?
Two hearts become one, an intimate kiss and cameras flash everywhere. Yesterday Rosemary and Juvenal said “yes” to each other in the sports hall of the Diospi-Suyana-School. Juvenal (who is part of the hospital’s x-ray-team) finally married the love of his life. The words “Love Forever” were projected onto the screen and I started pondering.
How many marriages are entered into with such passion and joy and end a couple of years later in a tragic, sickening, mudslinging-match. The Hollywood actors, who star in one moving romantic film after the next, are rarely able to conserve this special feeling longer than a couple of years in their private lives – they need the next buzz.
I am sure you can think of laudable exceptions. My mother’s last words (she died of Alzheimer), “My beloved Rudi”, were a declaration of love to my father, who had cared for her lovingly and patiently for the last seven years of her life: “Love Forever” fits the bill.
If a man and a woman love each other, even after 57 years of marriage they will not get bored of each other. This was the case with my parents. But if the mutual love grows cold the phrase “Love Forever” becomes a prison.
In the New Testament God offers us “Life Forever”. Jesus said about himself that he came into the world to redeem us and to offer us eternal life in God’s presence – no aging, no sicknesses, no death. But, would it not become boring after say 300 or perhaps 5,000 years?
We can hardly imagine this situation, which Jesus speaks about. But one thing is certain: if God loves us and we live in a relationship with him, won’t we also want to live forever? Without this love, however, our existence would at some point become torture, which can be equated to living in hell. In other words “Life Forever” is only attractive, if it is accompanied by a loving relationship with God: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3,16 NIV) /KDJ
