The Big Questions

You asked:

"All this brings up a very, very philosophical (and theological) question: what is the purpose of our life?"

You like the small questions don't you ?? :-)

Douglas Adams believed that the purpose of life was to find a question. This is as good an explanation as any for the secular world.

However, it seems from scripture that the purpose of our lives is to have some kind of relationship with God, He who created us.

You already answered what we should do with our lives when you said:

"In short, we are to study at Christ's feet, and learn to do what he told us to do."

So there you have purpose and mission !

I watch the two new goldfish that my daughter has acquired over the summer (that I have to look after and feed of course) and they are pre-programmed to avoid death. When I feed them they dash to the surface to grab the food (because they are hungry) and then immediately head for a "safer" depth. They've spent all of their lives living in goldfish tanks so they didn't learn this behaviour through watching their buddies get picked off near the surface by seagulls.

Humans are pre-programmed to avoid death too. Partly that's why we focus on the "3" and none of the other numbers. Part of my journey has left me focussed on all the other numbers - my eyes set on Heaven. And - in part - I think that this is what the test of life is, this is what Jesus was telling us and showing us by being selfless and dying for us. We should sacrifice our fear of death and trust the Lord.

If you're not scared of dying then the only fear that you are left with is people whom you love dying. And if you really believe that they will go Heaven (all those numbers!) then you have no fear.