Watching Life After People

Life After People, if you've never seen it, is a History Channel program which documents what happens to all the creations of humanity if humanity were to suddenly disappear.

The program is at this moment documenting the potential for the destruction of the Golden Gate bridge, the Mona Lisa and the Declaration of Independence. On the last episode, I saw the Space Needle crash to the ground and New Orleans be reclaimed by the Mississippi delta.

The single constant among all of the above is that without humans to keep nature in check these achievements of technology, architecture, art and thought will vanish, brought down by something as simple as moths, mold, trees and rust.

While the show's premise indicates a differing view from my own theology - that is, the Bible does not offer a scenario in which the entire human race simultaneously disappears from the earth - it nonetheless reminds me of what is essential. What we build, what we think and what we create will not last. If we put our hope in these transient pursuits, we will be bitterly disappointed in the end. There's only One in whom we can put our hope and know our treasures will last. He is the One who told us: 

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal." (Matthew 6:19-20)