Completely Naked
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we carry nothing out.” 1 Timothy 6:7.
In whichever country we may have been born, whichever race or social status we may belong to, we all came to the world in the same way. We all slid down the dark tunnel of our mother’s birth track – in the case of a natural birth – head down, and came to the light with our body covered with fluids and attached to the placenta by the umbilical cord that was to be soon cut off. Then, our fragile body was washed and clothed after we had taken that breath of air that put our lungs to work in this hostile environment, while a cry gave sign that we were alive and brought joy and peace to our mother. What a strange way of coming into the world! How traumatic the experience of birth is for a newly born. We do not know, but to come from a dark, humid and warm environment where we swam like a fish, to a dry, cold and bright place where we have to learn to breathe and develop as independent human beings, may not be very easy. Nevertheless, a new life is a miracle, a miracle of God’s love for man. That new creature needs much warmth, attention, love in order to develop and grow physically, mentally and spiritually healthy. Jesus was also born in that way for our sake.
What do we bring with us when we are born? Nothing. Not even a character. We are like a piece of stone with which the great Artist wants to shape a masterpiece according to His image and likeness. We have been entrusted to our earthly parents so that they may keep direct contact with the One who rules the course of the Universe and help us to become what we were born to be. We do not belong to our parents, as it is written: “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord”, so our parents’ duty is to consult with the Lord, as Sampson’s father did and asked Him: “Teach us what we shall do with the child who will be born?”
Jesus did not belong to Mary and Joseph and that is why when they lost him and found him again in the temple in Jerusalem after three days. He said he had to take care of His Father’s business. Although He was an obedient child, He knew His Father in heaven was above his earthly parents.
Since the moment we are born, an angel is given to take care of us, to protect us, to guide our steps, to infom1 the heavenly Father about {he: progress we are making in this hostile world. Are we aware that we have an angel of God at all times near us? Have we ever felt his presence? Let us read this wonderful news: “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 18:10.
With each newly born, anew register is opened in heaven, on which all the thoughts, words, plans, dreams, intentions, actions of that person are faithfully written during his whole life. As we go through the different stages in life, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, we develop a character as we acquire certain habits, because it is actually the performance of our daily habits that develops our character. Jesus developed a perfect character and since He is our model we should study His life and see what His habits were since his first years of life. According to the environment in which we grow up, the society in which we interact, we start to develop certain ways of acting or reacting. We have our parents as our first pattern and in that way, children are a reflection of their parents. But if our heavenly Father is above all, we should be a reflection of His character, and that is what Jesus was, as He lived a life beholding His face. He came with a mission and nothing distracted Him from it. And we are also here with a mission, to build up characters that make us suitable for heaven.
Jesus was not allured by the vanities of this world, He did not start accumulating material things as if he were going to live here forever, but He led a simple life for the service of others and thus He developed a humble and meek character and was a really free man, free from earthly passions, free from lust, free from covetousness, envy, jealousy and all those feelings that rule those who have their goal set on the things of this world.
When our life reaches an end, it does not matter in which way we have lived it. Once again we are naked, just as when we were born. Now, instead of catching the first breath of air, we expire the last breath, and once again we are washed and dressed and cleaned from all the fluids that come out from our body whose muscles have been put to rest. We may have many belongings, properties, much money in the bank, we may have traveled all over, we may have made a name for ourselves in this world, we may have won a beauty contest, or have had a glorious life. Our name may appear in a famous encyclopedia, but we take nothing from all that to the tomb with us and just as Paul said to Timothy: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we carry nothing out.”
But we have something we did not have when we came to this world, something very important that will seal our eternal destiny: we have a character, that was formed by the accumulation of the habits of a whole life, a character that will determine whether we shall be saved or lost.
The last page of the book that was assigned in heaven to every human being at birth, is written the day of our death, and if at the end, one very important word is written: “‘Repented,’ then, we are saved and will sleep in the tomb in peace awaiting the resurrection of the righteous when the Lord Jesus will come again for the second time. The prophet wrote: “Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord.” If, instead, we have rejected His grace, we have not followed the model sent to us from heaven, Jesus Christ, and the word is “Unrepented =lost,” all the same we shall sleep in the grave, but we shall not arise until Jesus’ third coming, when the resurrection of the wicked will take place. Are we well aware of this? Are we aware that the wicked are not only the criminals, the thieves and prostitutes who do not repent, but the unbelievers, the ones who think themselves righteous although the word of God says there is no one righteous, the ones who do not repent of their vanity and selfishness and do not ask for forgiveness and a change of heart? This is the worst sin in God’s eyes: unbelief. The Bible speaks about the people who will not resurrect at Jesus’ second coming: “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished…Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. ”
May the Lord help us to make the right decision and make a covenant with Him as Jacob did: “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I must come to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” We are all on the way to the Father’s house and Jesus is the only way. May He grant us the grace to understand it and to follow Him. Amen.