Article March 28, 1988 Issue

The inevitability of life

The Bible assures us "death is swallowed up in victory."

Doris Kerns Quinn

A Young girl I knew, who was respected by teachers and classmates alike, abruptly left school one day in the middle of a class. Her mother called the teacher later and gave this explanation: "She felt a sudden realization of the inevitability of death, and she was so upset she just had to come home."

Though the young student recovered from her overwhelming sense of hopelessness, this incident left a deep impression on me. Why, I asked myself, should we have this dark certitude of impending death, rather than a conviction of the inevitability of life? Why should a young girl—normally full of the joy of living—have her happiness dimmed by death's menacing shadow?

Christ Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:10. His statement is surely the direct opposite of a mortal's belief in the inevitability of his own extinction. Was Jesus referring only to some vague immortality after death, reserved for those who have followed his teachings on earth and who deserve eternal life in heaven? Or did his statement have a deeper meaning?

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Never forsaken
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