Spiritually Speaking

“Here Lies Abel: Son, Brother, Rancher.” I wonder if somewhere, lost in the archives of time, is a memorial stone set to honor Abel – murdered son of Adam and Eve – a single granite marker placed carefully on a hill, overlooking the forbidden garden; death within eyesight of the tree of life, mourning within earshot of the garden’s peace.

We are told of no others who might have preceded him in death. In the Biblical account, his memorial stands as ALPHA. I suppose his obituary might have read, “Survived by … everybody.” However, in the pages that follow, we are introduced to an endless parade of people who “appear like a mist and then are gone.” We are treated to the private and not-so-private lives of both small and great, righteous and reprobate – lives that seem to go on forever and those that are snuffed out long before their time. From Methuselah’s 969 to David’s “threescore-and-ten” to the untimely murder of Bethlehem’s babies in the days of Herod the (not so) Great, the message is driven deep into our souls, “Life is fleeting; death is certain!”

History is full of man’s desperate attempts to escape the specter of death. Ponce De Leon searched in vain for the fountain of youth. (The older I get, the more convinced I become that Ponce should have looked a little harder!) Modern science has given itself wholeheartedly to the study of genetic engineering. Lives are being made better. Lives are being prolonged. Still, the graveyards and funeral homes are full of our failures. In a sense, we were all buried with Abel on that lonely hillside, victims of Satan and sin. Prior to that day, human death was still a futuristic concern. The promise had been made (Dust you are and to dust you will return) but the hammer had not yet fallen.

Part of me wishes that Adam and Eve had known more about Messiah. It was too soon for God to reveal all of His mysterious, miraculous plans for His creation; but it might have been comforting for early man (any man) to know the rest of the story. Let “He is Risen!” ring from the very ground that accepted the slain brother of Cain. See you Sunday.