CHAT WITH GOD ON DEATH

God,
Why death?

(Let’s talk about it.
What do you want to know?)

Why does death prevail in the first place?

(Of what aspect?
Physical, or metaphysical?)

I want to know both.

(You pick a start.)

Alright. Physical first.

(That is easy!
Without death there is no life.)

Huh?

(You see, death is a vital part of life.)

Hmmm, I seem to get it.

(I bet you can name quite a few examples.)

Yeah. Astrophysicists talk about the death of stars.
Without that, life-supporting elements would stay put,
and never come out of its nuclear furnace.
Life would be impossible without the atomic building blocks.

(That is the modern scientific understanding of my creation.)

I sure hope that is not far from the truth.

(That is certainly one way of looking at it from your space time.)

Then, there are geologists
who talk about the large scale death of plants and animals.
Without that, there would be no charcoal and petroleum.

(Not so selfish a perception, as if I knew you will need energy of all sorts.)

Some even claim unabashedly
without the catastrophic ending of Dinosaurs’ terror reign,
Man would not begin to walk on planet Earth.

(Quite an anthropocentric view again,
as if I sent the heavenly bodies to sterilize the incubator of life.)

Are you then supposing the opposite?

(Nothing is out of my sovereignty,
not even asteroids and meteorites streaking in the firmament.)

Wow, that is quite a statement.
Granted that without death
Earth would be in dearth of shared space and resources.
So what if Adam and Eve did not sin?

(We have not finished chatting on the physical aspect of death.
Let’s go back and dwell a little longer.)

OK, without death, life’s precious elements would not recycle.
That is still on condition that our right-sized Earth is as small as it is.

(That is quite a thought! There are certain constraints in my original design.)

Furthermore, without programmed cell death, embryos would not develop normally.

(Uh-huh. Just think about a sphere of grape-like cells lumping ever larger,
if there were no robust developmental circuitry, including apoptosis.)

That is for sure.
Apoptosis routinely destroys aged and potentially cancerous cells.

(So are you still unhappy about death?)

I am quite unhappy about the metaphysical aspect of it.

(Let’s move on to that aspect then.)

Allow me to get to the heart of the question:
Does the gift of free will inevitably come with her twin brother death?

(Sound like a double-edged sword, isn’t it?)

Very much so! How I wish the twin will part their conjoined heads.

(That will be the reality in the forthcoming new Heaven and new Earth.)

So free will can be a partner forever with life, as opposed to with death.

(That is certainly within the boundary of possibility.
But without death’s sting, the union with life wouldn’t be as sweet.)

O how we dislike the gall-like bitterness of distasteful death!

(I am on you side too. Remember, death is not even immune to God!)

You mean the Crucifixion?

(That is precisely my point!)

So death became part of God’s feeling and experience too?

(Not just death, but painful Father-Son separation in the process.)

Can you then say death is not all worthless?

(Where, O death, is your victory?)

Where, O death, is your sting?

(Apostle Paul eloquently expressed that victoriously sweet sentiment.)

I agree. A death that conquers all deaths! How marvelous indeed!

(You got it.
Live on under the shadow of death for now,
But live with the gleaming hope of life forever.
Wait for the tolling bell.)

The tolling bell to death, that is.

(Well said. Live out the hope of life.)

Thank you, dear God.

(Composed on June 3, 2004)