Life is all about the choices we make. When God created people, He gave us the ability to make decisions. One of the characteristics of the image of God was the ability to choose. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they needed to sustain them in the loving relationship with God in which they existed. But in the middle of the Garden there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned them to stay away from the fruit of that tree.  So they had a choice to make. They could follow the instructions of God and live forever in paradise, or they could eat the forbidden fruit and die.

You might think that an absurd choice. Who would choose death over life? Yet that is what they did. And the result of that choice not only filled their lives with sin, but they passed it on to successive generations. Because of sin, you are no longer able to choose God on your own. Your sin separates you from your heavenly Father, and you are unable to go back to Him without assistance. You still have a freedom of choice in the matters of what you do in this world, but your ability to choose God was lost in the Fall into sin.

Are we any wiser in the choices we make? Many choices people make today bring harm to themselves and others.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God was speaking to His Chosen people through Moses. They had been rescued from their slavery in Egypt and were on their way to the Promised Land.  Moses told them they had choices to make. He listed the good God would have them do and the evil God would have them avoid. Then he said this:

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a).

God wants you to listen to Him, follow His promptings and the guidance of His Spirit, and choose life. The life that He offers is one that Jesus accomplished for you. He chose death “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Hebrews 2:9b). Jesus chose suffering and death to pay the price we owed God because of our sin. Jesus chose death to destroy it once and for all through His resurrection from the dead. Jesus chose death and “brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10b). Jesus chose death to rescue you. Jesus chose death and He has chosen you so that you could have life.

As those chosen by God, you are His children. You can choose life. You can choose to uphold the value He gives to life and to defend the life of the vulnerable. You can choose life and care for those among us who are weary and burdened. You can choose life and share the forgiveness of Christ with one another when mistakes are made.

“Choose Life!” is a phrase can stir things up. What I pray it will stir up in you is your faith and trust in God. You can make good, God-pleasing choices because you are chosen by God in Christ.