There is a beautiful little
story about one of the Greek gods. It
seems that Zeus fell in love with a mortal
woman. Mercury told him, "Look, you
are Zeus, you can do anything you want.
So why do you not declare a little war down in Greece, so her husband,
who was a young general, will have to go off.
You can go down masquerading and make love to his wife." Zeus thought this
was a good idea, so he did it. When he
came back to the heavens, Zeus is very reflective on
what the gods are missing by being immortal.
"She was saying, 'when I am young,' or 'when I am old,' or 'when I
die.' This stabs me Mercury. We miss something Mercury. We miss the poignancy of the transient, the
sweet sadness of grasping for something we know we cannot hold."
During the course of his
travels, Gulliver came to the land of the Luggnaggians. Among them was a group of persons who were
born with a red spot on their foreheads.
They were very rare, only once in an age, Gulliver was told. He was curious as to what that meant. He was told that these were the immortals,
those who would never die. Gulliver was
excited at this possibility. He told
them that if he were fortunate enough to be among this group, he would want to
learn as much as possible, and then be a wise counselor to those who were
ruling the country. He would want to be
of the greatest value to the race.
Gulliver was told, however, that these people were the most pitiable of
their people. Gulliver assumed that
immortality meant eternal youth, and this was far from the truth. These people aged like everyone else, and had
all the physical and mental declines of old age. When they reached 100 years old, their land
was given over to their children, they became wards of the state, and were
forced to live on a small amount of funds.
It was not long until, precisely because they were immortal, they no
longer cared for anything.
The
story is told of a little boy whose sister needed a blood transfusion. The boy had recovered from the same disease
two years before. Her only chance for
recovery was to have a transfusion from someone who had recovered from the
disease. Since the boy had the same rare
blood type and had recovered from the disease, he would be the ideal donor. The doctor asked if he would be willing to do
this. At first, the boy hesitated. His lower lip started to tremble. But then he said, "Sure, for my
sister." The two were wheeled into
a hospital room. They were side by side. They did not speak, but when their eyes met,
the boy smiled at his sister. He was so
healthy, while she was very pale and sickly.
The nurse put the needle into the boy's arm, and the boy's smile faded. He watched his blood flow into the tube. When the ordeal was almost over, his voice
slightly shaky, he said, "Doctor, when do I die?" Only then did the doctor realize why the boy
hesitated, and why his lip trembled. In
that brief moment, he made a great decision.[1]
I like the way John Wesley
put it on his 85th birthday:
"I have only to say: My
remnant of days I spend to his praise, who died the whole world to redeem; be
they many or few, my days are his due, and they all are devoted to him."
No comments:
Post a Comment