March 2023
Dear Friends
When the state pension was first paid out in 1909 (to those
aged 70 or over) life expectancy in England was just 52 years! By the time I was born in 1963 it had reached
71 years, driven steadily upward by improving healthcare and prosperity. By 2019 life expectancy was up to 82 years
although increases had slowed. Since
2019, of course, it has gone back down, to about 81 years. On average, a whole year has been taken off
our lives.
Those are just averages - there are many individuals who
seem to have lost much more than one year of their life, who were taken from us
‘far too soon’. Expectations of a long
life have risen and we can feel that someone who doesn’t reach at least 80 has
been cheated.
The Bible turns this on its head: life is not a right that
is cruelly taken from us but the gift of a loving God. Every single day is a fresh gift from our
Creator to be lived for him and not something we have earned and which is owed
to us. We can no more complain about this
undeserved gift coming to an end than we could complain that the box of
chocolates freely given to us by a friend should have been bigger.
In the Old Testament, long life is God’s great blessing and
gift to those who trust in him. In the
New Testament, God upgrades his gift, from long life to eternal life, with most
of that gift lying on the other side of death.
In words that are read at the start of the Christian funeral service
Jesus declared, “I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he
dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
That’s why,
when the apostle Paul knew that he was going to be martyred for his faith, he
was not in despair. He knew that as he
departed this life he would receive the better gift of an abundant life with
Jesus forever. Paul’s life until then
had only been chapter one of the whole book.
Christians
down to the present day have shared that same confidence: “to live is Christ
and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)
Sincerely
Graham Burrows