16. Two Great Gifts
By
Roger Behra, B. S. Education *
* Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, Western New Mexico University, Silver City, New Mexico. He took five courses, 15 graduate hours, University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. 19 years experience teaching language arts in Arizona and Ohio, U.S.A. 10 years teaching religion in St. Ann Catholic School in Ohio, in addition.
God has given us His two greatest gifts, and they are as follows:
1. The gift of life here on earth, which is temporary.
2. The gift of happy eternal life, which lasts FOREVER.
Our earthly life, being temporary, and what we do with it, decides what kind of eternal life we shall have later on. Only God knows how long our earthly life will last. Therefore, we must live the most pleasing earthly life possible to God. A most pleasing earthly life includes love of God, love of our neighbor, leading a good Christian moral life personally, making good use of our intelligence and talents, care of our health, prayer, sorrow for our sins and offences, and penance. All of this insures that God’s graces and blessings will be abundantly bestowed upon us and that we will be daily in the friendship of the Lord. Being in the friendship of the Lord is most important, as dying in the friendship of the Lord insures an unimaginable happy eternal life.
Only Lord knows how long our earthly life will last. It can end at a moments notice. For an untold number of people their earthly life very quickly ends outside the friendship of the Lord. And that means the most unhappy eternal life is in store for them.
The key words in this communication are:
1. Earthly- -of this world
2. Eternal- -going on forever, without end
3. Eternity- - time without beginning or end
4. Friendship- -likeable persons who share similar ideas and behavior (God´s and man´s blend together)
God and person sharing similar ideas and behavior during earthly life, so that eternal life for all eternity will be unimaginably happy. That should be everyone´s main goal in life - - - achieved, actually finished successfully.