It is rather foolish for anyone who is departing the earth to assume that he is going to rest somewhere else. When we look around us even on this earth , we do not find rest anywhere. Do the sun, the moon and the stars ever rest? What about our earth? It is moving around our sun at a terrific speed.While moving around our sun to produce the various seasons of the year, which brings us the various food crops of the seasons, it is rolling also on its axis, once in 24 hours to unfailingly produce the effects of day and night.
Look at the streams and the rivers. They are ever flowing from somewhere to somewhere.Mighty waves of ocean water fall upon the beaches everyday, sometimes eating up the soil and eroding the coast line.In the womb, babies kick. The average adult human heart beats about 72 times every minute while we are alive. Once blood stops to circulate within us,we are due for translation to another world. Look at the clouds, and you will find no rest in the firmament. Underground rivers are ceaselessly flowing in the bowels of the earth. Volcano’s remind us that the earth is not resting or asleep or dead. Even in the birth of a child, there is no rest. His or her friends in the beyond accompany him or her to this earth and keep him or her company for 40 days after the mother is delivered of him or her. Have we ever wondered what makes babies to smile even when they are asleep? If we assume that they are probably dreaming, and we erroneously relate all dreams to daytime experiences playing funny tricks on our brains while we are asleep, what conscious experiences can we ascribe to a one day old baby whose smile will attribute to dreaming?
Christians need to rethink seriously. Despite obvious distortions of the teachings of our Lord Jesus by the church down the generations, the bible still preserves some grains of truth for us. Baby Jesus and Baby John the baptist were in their respective mother’s wombs when Mary the mother of Jesus went to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, the mother of John.The bible reports that both babies recognise the presence of each other across the frontiers of the womb and lept with joy.If we remember, John the baptist came from a plane of existence in paradise which is much much higher above the paradise we earth men and women are aspiring to go, to prepare the way among us for the High Mission of Jesus which is to show us the way and how to get there. There is no rest in this but serious activity.John the baptist had come before this time, but not as Elijah as prophet Isiah unfortunately assumed ,and has come again on another high mission preparatory to the final judgement.He is always coming and going,not resting anywhere,as an active participant in the Mission of Salvation.
Let’s move away from John the Baptist. On Holy Night, was it not reported that a heavenly host accompanied baby Jesus to the earth? This shows that there is no rest anywhere.It is all work, work and work. As we see in the sun, moon, stars, sea waves, flowing streams and rivers, the clouds, the wind and the volcanos to mention a few activities of nature.We need to realise,as the Yorubas say, that a sharp cutlass cannot cut grass by itself, that a human being manipulates it. The natural phenomenon I have just described are not self acting. Beings that we cannot see with the physical eyes are behind this phenomenom. Let us not forget Balaam in the old testament whose horse refuse to obey his command and whose eyes suddenly opened to behold some beings at work repairing the land form ahead of him for an eruption. Unfortunately, he misnamed these beings who were elemental beings as angels ,who have nothing to do with such things.The bible tells us that the 24 elders in the temple above the highest regions of paradise do not rest.From eternity until eternity, we are told, they sing holy holy holy.
One more example from the bible.Moses and Elijah were long dead before the transfiguration of Jesus. The bible reports that they were present with him at the Transfiguration. Why were they not in their graves resting in peace or perfect peace and awaiting the trumpet of the rapture? As christians, we take things too literally. We do not see allegorical pictures being painted for us. We do not see the trumpets as escalating quantum and magnitude of world events such as wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, distrust,hatred,covetousness,murders,incest,health disasters ,climate change, among populations etc.
It was right from secondary school when we were taught the skeletal system in the biology class that I began to think about life after physical death. In our laboratory, there were different human skeletal forms from many places. Blind faith would make you believe that Osama bin Laden’s bones which were dissolved by acid would reform on rapture day and be joined by his flesh which was also dissolved. What of that man from whose remains in the grave a mighty oak tree derived its nurture. Will the tree regurgitate what it had consumed? What if that tree itself had become foliage which produced some crude petroleum which had been extracted and sold by Nigeria to power motor vehicles in Europe. Will the traffic exhaust in London and New York 20 years ago convert to human skeletons if the rapture takes place 1000 years from now? The story of Moses and Elijah appearing with the Lord Jesus at his transfiguration hinted me that we are not meant to reside in the grave after our earthly demise. In any case, weren’t we told that a chariot of fire took Elijah away from the earth heavenwards? Did the Lord Jesus not Ascend to the Father? Did he not give us the parable of Lazarus and the rich man?
I do not doubt that some souls are still seen around cemeteries and even houses of farm lands.The human spirit is endowed with free will to decide whatever it wants to do with itself. These are souls who are earthbound instead of being heaven bound either because of stupid beliefs or because they made earthly matters their preoccupation. When you believe that you must be in the grave until judgement day, no one will stop you from living in your grave until that day. Your belief is your anchorage. Your anchor will hold you fast to where you drop it. If you think too much of the wife or family you left behind,you may be stuck to your earthly home.You would know no joy when another man, maybe even your best friend comes in and goes out with your wife within one or two weeks of your funeral. This means we should struggle even while we are on earth not to be so seriously attached to anyone or place or event or property that we cannot easily turn our back against when we are called away.We should be attached only to our creator whose will we are to serve at all times,here or in the hereafter as the stories of John the baptist and Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration has taught us.
Every time I think of my passage someday, I always wish myself the following…to joyful life and joyful activity shall I awaken, and that, and not rest in peace, is what I will like inscribed on my tombstone.
All that I have discussed should teach us that we live under a law which is unbending and the aspect of that Law is the Law of Motion. It compels everything to be on the move always. Sluggishness or stagnation will bring ruin.Only healthy movement brings life. A plane which stops its engine in the air will crash.So will we human beings when we are no longer on the move,stupidly finding a place to rest such as in the grave when we are called away.
