Agreed dearest sister in Christ! One clear sign of life seems to be the ability of an organism to "communicate" and "process information." Another seems to be the ability to maintain distance from thermal equilibrium. Et al. It seems life forms — unlike inorganic entities and machines — are complex open systems. We can tot up a list of features based on observation and analysis, but such a list will not tell us what life IS, just "what it looks like," and how it "behaves."
As Robert Rosen put it, "What is Life?" is the single most difficult and intractable question in science. He strongly suggests that the question cannot be answered absent Aristotle's idea of final cause — which as you'll recall Francis Bacon "abolished" from science. Certainly the Newtonian Paradigm has abolished it.
Thank you so much for your excellent essay/post, dearest sister in Christ!
Thank you so very much for your wonderful insights and encouragements, dearest sister in Christ!