As years pass by, I realize that having a big house, great car, eating at flashy restaurants and even doing ‘good works’ do not satisfy. Oh yes, fleetingly there’s that ‘sit-back’ moment of accomplishment but no sooner has the enjoyment flooded my soul than I want something else. But what is it? What is that invisible pull to something more? Something eternal?
Many have talked about what’s after this life – or if there actually is anything. Is there something or is this all we have? There’s a plethora of proposed philosophies. We live as a good a life as we can so that we can come back as a higher form the next time around and then keep going through this cycle until, hopefully, we reach a state of freedom and eternal tranquility. Or we follow every law God has given and we will be taken into heaven rather than be condemned to hell. Or when we die, it will be literally nothingness. Or there is no judgment of good and bad but we will just go to a place where we meet with our ancestors.
Somehow, this intense longing is not satiated in contemplating the ambiguities that are proposed. A phrase written by the wisest king who ever lived begins to surface from my subconscious – ‘he set eternity in the hearts of men’. So that’s where this heartfelt desire comes from, this profound knowledge that there is more – there is something in my heart that recognizes that life does not die. Now that makes no sense! We attend countless funerals and see the coffins buried under a couple of metres of soil. That person was alive and is now dead.
But what is a person? Is it what we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands? Or is the person the essence that animates him to be the personality, character, unique being that is on display when he speaks, interacts, works, and takes decisions? Of course, it’s common knowledge that humans are more than flesh and blood. We don’t need to be an expert to appreciate such facts. This internal ‘knowing’ that denies the fact that a dead body is the end seeps into our consciousness on a regular basis. We may try to stay busy to refuse the thoughts, but they come right back in – in moments of solitude, silence, reflection.
Can we, therefore, know for sure what awaits us after our body is six feet under? As I said, this is a reflection – not a theological thesis. May I just show you some words from a book that has stood the test of time throughout millennia? ‘…each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment…’; ‘an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his (Jesus’) voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment…’; and when the thief said to the man on the middle cross ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom’, the latter’s reply was: ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise. This is a solemn promise.’ Mmmmm… maybe we need to look more seriously into what comes after we draw our last breath on this earth.