It is spring, life starts over again. I drive about 20 miles to my college down a mostly two lane highway. One long stretch is almost completely canopied by the trees. I am always fascinated and in awe this time of the year. It seems like magic, one day the trees are bare, the next, green with new life. No matter how many times I have seen this in life, it still fascinates me.
This time is also reflected in the church calendar, the austere days of Lent, followed by the glorious “resurrection” of life and the movement toward fully alive, called Pentacost by the church. Fifty days to become fully awake and fully aware of all that is possible in life. In nature this is a time of rapid growth. So too I think in the spiritual life.
I watch my grandson as he grows. It is like the miracle of the trees on the way to work. One day it seems like there isn’t much going on and then here he is, sitting in his own little recliner, eating some breakfast and watching Sesame Street like a little man. It is truly amazing to watch the transformation of the grandson. I wonder if God does the same with us? One day we are unaware of the Eternal, then we discover how much we are loved and we are born. The Eternal is amazed by us. We are Beloved after all.
I love to think that the Eternal is fascinated watching us blossom and grow. If this time of the year we realize that the cross is but a symbol of the eternal cycle of life death and life again, we might shift our perspective a bit. Christ shows the way of life by living a life in perfect harmony with the Eternal; by taking all of the evil of the world and turning it into grace. Sin is overcome not by a death but by a life. In that wooden cross we have our perspective resurrected, we see a new way to live, each day of that life a testimony to all that is and can be good in the world.
TMM