Life Is Forever Series

From out of the files of the great Michelangelo comes the story

of the young artist who labored long and tedious hours on the

statue of an angel. When the time for its unvailing had finally

come, the young artist hid himself in an inconspicuous spot and

waited breathlessly for the response of the great sculptor. When

Michelangelo arrived and carefully examined the statue, he turned

to one of his colleagues and said, "It lacks only one thing...."

The expectant heart of the young artist was crushed, and without

waiting to hear what that one thing was, he slipped away with

tearful eyes to grieve. One of his close friends, seeing his condition,

mustered up the courage to go to Michelangelo and ask what the

statue lacked. The great artist said, "The statue lacked only one

thing-life. With life it would be as perfect as God himself could

have made it!"

The young artist grieved prematurely for he had done the best

that man could do, for only God can give life. God was the first

sculptor, and Genesis 2 tells us he formed man from the dust of the

ground. Man was first a beautiful lifeless statue, like those we see

of great men and women all through history from ancient Greece to

our own great presidents. But God could do something that no one

has ever been able to do to a statue. He breathed into that statue of

Adam the breath of life, and man became a living being. Out of

darkness God said let there be light. Out of dust God said let there

be life. The Bible says God is the origin of life, the author of life,

the creator of life, for God is life.

Life is, because God is. Life is eternal, because God is eternal.

Life is the foundation of all that is, for life was before all things. In

contrast to those who speculate that life must have developed, or

been spontaneously generated out of non-life, the Bible says just the

opposite is the case. All non-life is a product of life, for God is life,

and all that is, is because God as life, made it so.

It is fascinating to study life from the point of view of how the

creator of life has designed it. There are marvels that make science

a form of worship, as men probe into the mysteries of life. Take, for

example, the wonder that so many of the precious values of life that

make modern living such a blessing are non-living products that

exist because of life that was sacrificed. Coal, oil, gas, and

diamonds, just to name some major ones. These, and their

numerous by-products, are all derived from life.

God has so arranged the structure of physical reality that there

is only one atom that can be the foundation for life, and that is the

carbon atom. All other atoms can form only small molecules of a

dozen or less atoms. Carbon, on the other hand, can form

molecules of hundreds, thousands, and even millions of atoms.

Therefore, carbon is the only atom that can form molecules large

enough, and complicated enough, to make life possible. That is why

it is called the element of life. There is no life without carbon. It

has a tenacity to hold together like no other element. It is the

hardest of the elements to melt, and to pull apart. Plants are full of

carbon, and ten percent of the atoms in a human being are carbon.

Remove the carbon from this room, and not only are the plants

gone, but so are we, for carbon is the chemical foundation of life.

When trees fall in a forest and lay there as dry wood, they are

50%carbon, but as they decay further and become peat, they

become 60% carbon. The peat becomes Lignite, which is 67 %

carbon, and it becomes Bituminous coal, which is 88% carbon, and

then the pressure finally produces Anthracite coal which is 95%

carbon. The ultimate comes when the carbon is pushed together as

hard as it can be with all non-carbon squeezed out, and you have a

diamond. The diamond is related to coal, just as the black and

white man have the same origin. So the black coal and white

diamond have the same origin. The point of all this is, God has so

made physical life that even in death it is not defeated, but becomes

a source of great physical blessings. Almost all of the power that

makes life a joy comes from coal, oil, and gas-all products of life.

All the sources of fire are from that which was once alive. Fire is a

flame produced by life. Diamonds that beautify life, also have their