https://odb.org/2024/12/04/when-life-appeared
A few years back, I saw a very touching and outstanding documentary on life in Chernobyl. Because of the nuclear leaks and the resulting deadly radioactive contamination in 1986, people and animals there had either left or were killed, leaving behind signs of everyday life but devoid of life. Thus, you have left behind homes with food on the table or a fully equipped kitchen with unwashed dishes, full furniture in houses. But no life at all. It was through efforts as described in today’s ODB article that the radioactive waste was eventually disposed of. Nevertheless, there were radiation residuals, and until today, Chernobyl is unhabited by people.
However, after more than 35 years, there are now signs of life. You can find hordes of deer in its midst. Trees and other vegetation have grown around the abandoned houses. There are foxes and even wolves roaming the streets. Void of human activities, Chernobyl has become a wildlife haven, including birds, insects, and bisons and wild horses. You may google it. There is an abundance of information on the Chernobyl Nuclear Exclusion Zone in Ukraine.
Because of the work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary and the grace of God, we have eternal life. But what is that actually? We will live on even though we may pass away and die and be cut off entirely from the land of the living. Once life is taken from us, we will only be left in our human bodies, which will rot away and return to the earth. We can no longer participate in the affairs of this world. A different world awaits us in the realm of the dead. Life and death are in the hands of God.
As believers in Christ, we have the hope that one day we will be resurrected like Christ did 2,000 years ago. We will be raptured to meet Christ in the air to usher in His return and rule on this earth. That’s not the end of time. Other events have been prophesied and will occur before judgment day, and there will be the Bema judgment seat of Christ for believers and the Great White Throne judgment of God for the rest of humanity. The consequences are significantly different. But at the end of it all, there will be the new heaven and new earth where the world we know today will live on, albeit in the form without sin and sorrow anymore. The spiritual and the natural will be merged together. It will be somewhat like Chernobyl refreshed and renewed but much, much more! That’s the hope all believers put their faith on, that if we are all in Christ until the very end, we will one day be reunited with our loved ones who had passed on in Christ in the past.
Even as kings and billionaires can not refuse when visited by the angel of death, we know that we will have the opportunity to live this life again one day if we are in Christ. Strive on and never give up our faith until our very last breath or till Christ returns! Amen!
Ronnie's Thoughts 