(John 1:4 NIV) In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

The American Cancer Society has never saved a life. The American Heart Association has never saved a life. Not my doctor, not your doctor, not any doctor has ever saved a single human life. Not even the Red Cross has ever saved a life. At best all these wonderful people and organizations do is postpone death, and at worst, they just prolong it. Every person treated for cancer eventually dies; every person treated for heart disease eventually dies; every person pulled from the flood, or fed, or warmed eventually dies. Everyone dies!

I got to thinking about this the other night when I heard some news item on the number of lives that had been saved by early cancer treatment. My, it sounded so good! Thousands of lives saved through treatment. Then it dawned on me, these people hadn't been saved; their deaths had only been shifted to another time! They were still going to die.

It takes more than a new chemical cocktail or a radical new surgery to save a life. It takes a life source. It takes something that has life in itself. It takes someone who is life to give life to another.

This is what the Christian faith is all about. Humans are not immortal—they die. We may live in constant denial of our mortality: we may get liposuction, facelifts, and tummy tucks. We may get hair implants and breast implants. We can take vitamins, watch our diets, and stop smoking. But no matter what we do, we grow ill or old and die.

People get old—God doesn't. Jesus said that he existed before Abraham was born. He's got life and to spare! And he, our Creator, wants to give us more life than we can imagine—even eternal life.

Lord Jesus, give me this life, this eternal life you will give to your Church when you return. Thank you. Amen.

—Dale Forrester
Dale1776@aol.com