Completing the Race

Benediction for a Runner Introduction

Some athletic races are sprints, and some are marathons. The ancient Greeks and the Romans promoted athletic competitions like the Olympic Games to prepare citizens for battle. Victorious athletes were crowned with a wreath.

The apostle Paul was quite familiar with Greek athletic competitions. He viewed life as a challenging race. Paul experienced suffering and hardships as he ran his race, yet he anticipated victory. He knew God had called him to run for His glory and would provide what he needed to cross the finish line and receive a victor’s crown.

The Bible presents a number of men and women who lived long lives. Many of them lived for the glory of God through their later years. Their lives provide insights into how we also can “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith …” (Hebrews 12: 1–2).

The Breath of Life Day 1 … then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

—Genesis 2:7

With seemingly insignificant dust, God forms man in His significant image. To create man, He chooses dust of the ground, not wood, stone, or other matter. Having already created the earth’s life-sustaining atmosphere, God breathes life into man’s nostrils, places him in a flourishing garden—the garden of Eden—and instructs him to care for the garden. Recognizing man’s need for companionship as well as for help, God creates a woman from man.

Adam and Eve dwell in the garden amidst its trees “pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). Two unique trees grow there: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flows through the garden and beyond.

Descriptions of trees and gardens appear throughout the Bible. One of the psalms compares a person who is right with God to a fruit-bearing tree with leaves that do not wither:

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its sea-

son,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he pros-

pers.

(Psalm 1:3)

In the beginning, when they are created, Adam and Eve are like fruit-bearing trees whose leaves do not wither. They know God personally, but they do not know sin, disease, or death. Aging, as we know it, is unknown in the garden.

Reflection: Have you known people whose lives continued to bear fruit in their later years? Dust Day 2 By the sweat of your face

you shall eat bread,

till you return to the ground,

for out of it you were taken;

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall

return.

—Genesis 3:19

God tells Adam that he can eat from all the trees in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The word “Adam” in the Hebrew language can be an individual’s name or can translate as the word “mankind.”

In the garden the serpent confronts Eve and asks, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). The serpent questions God’s command but does not mention God’s warning about the consequences for disobedience. Eve refers to the consequences, so the serpent questions God’s motives.

Succumbing to temptation, Eve eats the forbidden fruit. She then offers the fruit to Adam, who eats it. Realizing they are naked, Adam and Eve hide their nakedness with fig leaves. Upon hearing God approach, they try to hide themselves from Him.

God confronts Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Adam and Eve hear God tell the serpent that one day the offspring of the woman—the Messiah—will have ultimate victory over the serpent. God tells Adam and Eve that they have been formed from dust and will return to dust when they die. Although He exiles them from the garden, God displays mercy.

In one of his psalms, David describes God’s compassion in the context of our being formed from dust:

As a father shows compassion

to his children,

so the LORD shows compas-

sion to those who fear

him.

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are

dust.

(Psalm 103:13–14)

Reflection: What examples of God’s compassion have you observed in the lives of elderly family members or friends?