Reflecting on Acts 3:11-26“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.” (Acts 3:15)
God designed humans to live, and to give life by living for love.
Life is more than being physically alive; it is about how and why we live.
Life and love go hand in hand: loving God and others makes us fully alive.
But Adam and Eve shifted this when they took the life represented by the fruit.
That fruit represented something they didn’t have; by pursuing life they lost it.
Self-love is focusing on taking life for oneself, not giving it away.
As a result, like Cain, humans are writing a story of killing and death.
Jesus represents a different way of thinking about life: “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life (for love) will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
He lived to love, to give His life in order to restore our lives.
This is why God raises Jesus, because Jesus authors a story of love and life.
Jesus restores us to become authors of life too, to give life by loving others.
Thieves steal, kill and destroy; we are called to give life to the full (John 10:10)
By our words and actions we are either life-giving or life-sucking.
Today I will have opportunity to bless the lives of others… will I be an author of life?
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, You have shown us the life we were made for. Help me to live the kind of life that gives life to others, the kind of life that God wants to raise from death.