Man Is a Truly Honorable Being
There is no creature in this world that’s as precious as man. Human life is a truly precious and honorable life. What’s the reason for this? It’s because human beings are made in the likeness of the image of God, and therefore just as God is holy, they have the same holy heart. Even though they have lost this holiness for a short while by falling into the temptation of Satan, they still have their everlasting attribute. Take a look at the animals in this world. These animals are satisfied as long as they can find their daily food. But human beings are different. We humans yearn to live forever, and we want to prepare everlasting food. Originally, when God first made man, he was abundant in everything and had no want whatsoever. If he had listened to the Word of God and obeyed it, he could have lived a glorious life with God.
However, man ended up doing the only thing that God forbade him to do. The Lord God had said, “I will allow you to eat from the tree of life, I will give you everlasting life, and I will make you live happily. I will fill all your needs so that you may lack nothing. But one thing I forbid you, and it is that you should never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” God had said this to Adam and Eve, the first human beings.
Why did God then tell them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It’s because God was worried that they would have their own standard. Yet despite this, Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word, ate from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and came to have their own standard. What happened to them then? They were forced to leave the Garden of Eden that was overflowing with abundant happiness, took their portion, and ended up drifting away from God. Everyone in this world today is a descendant of Adam and Eve. This sin committed by Adam and Eve, our forefathers, was inherited by everyone to reach all the way down to you and me today.
Right now, we think that we lost everything of the world. Though we are not exactly sure where, we know that the Garden of Eden must be somewhere. We are always missing it. We yearn to return to that place. Although we don’t know the exact details, clearly, we long for the lost paradise. What’s the reason for this? It’s because everyone has the fundamental memory of his time in the Garden of Eden. Because we had lived in that place, where there is neither any disease nor any pain, but only happiness, blessings, joy, and pleasures exist, in our sub-conscience we have the basic instinct to desire to return to that place. Like the prodigal son, when we realize that our lives are meaningless, our yearning for returning to that place becomes that much more uncontrollable.
There are some species among fish that return to the place of their hatching. One of them is salmon. The salmon spawn in a river. The fingerlings grow up in the river and then head out to the sea. After roaming around the vast ocean, they invariably all return to their home tributary when it’s time for spawning. Even though they have no faculty of mind to know where their home tributary is, they instinctively return to it without fail.
The same is true for both you and me. Spiritually speaking, all of us were raised in the Garden of Eden. Our forefathers had lived there, and although we were not physically with them at that time, when seen through faith, we were as good as being there with them. The place where Adam and Eve had lived is the very place where we had lived. It is also the place where we will live in the future.
The prodigal son went out to the world and wasted everything. He then came to miss his hometown so much that it became unbearable for him. He thought to himself, “My father has so many hired servants and so much food, and yet I am starving to death here. It’s still not too late; I will turn my heart around and return to my father.”
Just like this prodigal son, we also wasted everything in our lives. When you lose everything and realize your true self, when you recognize the real substance of your life, your heart finally yearns to return to the place that you had left and you can make this decision.
Fall is almost over now and winter is just around the corner. As the fall season is slipping by us, what do we feel? What do we feel as we look at the rainy fall sky? Do we not feel lonely? Every time the leaves fall from the tree one by one, we feel the sheer emptiness of life, realizing that we, too, will also inevitably fall like them. We feel such emptiness precisely because we know ourselves; because we know that death is inevitable for all of us. Though the turning leaves are beautiful, what’s the reality behind this beauty? Changing colors are the evidence of the fact that the leaves are about to see their lives extinguished. This is all beautiful when expressed in literature, but when looking at life, it is a meaningless end. You may have read O. Henry’s The Last Leaf. We see that the protagonist of this novel was dying of a disease and that she identified her life to the falling leaves. Like this, when we look at a life form that’s dying, we are reminded of our inevitable death. This, my fellow believers, is how empty human life is.
Therefore, as those living a meaningless life of the flesh, you and I must return to God. We must prepare ourselves to return to Him.
King Solomon did everything he wanted. No one has probably lived more prosperously than Solomon in human history, as it is written, “I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds” (Ecclesiastes 2:3-8).
But what conclusion did Solomon reach at the end of his life?
He confessed with lamentation,
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
And on the labor in which I had toiled;
And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
There was no profit under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
In conclusion, King Solomon then made the following admonishment:
“Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,
And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
Walk in the ways of your heart,
And in the sight of your eyes;
But know that for all these
God will bring you into judgment” (Ecclesiastes 11:9).
“Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come ” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).
As these passages admonish us, we must realize what life is all about and return to God while we are still young, while we still have the faculty of the mind and before we are completely seized by the world and rendered totally helpless. This is the truth. All of us must realize our true selves and find the Lord."
Paul C Jong
