^15?But God will reach into the grave and save my life from its power.
????He will fetch me and take me into His eternal house.

What sends us to the grave? Romans 6:23 and other places in scripture tell us death is a natural outcome?we can expect when we only live for our own interests, when we abandon our true vocation as image-bearers, in other words, and sin instead.

And even more, there is an active power to death; it's not just some benign after-effect we have to deal with after choosing a lifestyle of inward self-interest.

Death is both consequence and?acting agent.

It's more like a bad shepherd that leads his sheep over a cliff instead of to a green pasture. When we choose to ignore our calling to be God's co-stewarding image bearers working for His Kingdom, and instead, live only for ourselves seeking to project our own image instead of bearing His, we invite death to exercise its power over us. And death always leads us to its home, the grave.

But God, through defeating death on the cross, rescues us from the grave even before our death and ushers us into His home, a home of Kingdom life with Him forever. And that work has already happened for those that follow Jesus as their King. We don't need to wait to begin living with Jesus as He makes His home in us today, and us in Him. The Kingdom is both now and to come.

For reflection...

There is an obvious powerlessness to being in a grave. What arises in you as a response to God as you meditate on the above verse?

How does realizing that God saved us from the grave to take us into His eternal home now, and that the Kingdom is being built now, impact your daily decisions and walk with God?

What comes to mind when you reflect on ways in which you've attempted to project an image instead of bearing God's image? How do you sense God reaching into your life in that area?