Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die.” Ecclesiastes 3
Life Cycle – are you familiar with the term? Do you believe that there is such a thing as a “life cycle?” And might I ask if you are comfortable with the inevitable realities that are inherent in a life cycle?
Our little granddaughter, Molly, was born last August; her arrival in this world was nothing short of a miracle. In a mystery beyond our understanding, humans make a miraculous journey from one world to the next. After nine months, safe and secure in our mother’s womb, we make a painful journey of faith leaving the comfort of one existence for an uncertain future. If you have ever experienced the birth of a human, it is not a stretch to call it a miracle. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven; a time to be born. It is all a part of God’s grand design.
We celebrate and give thanks to God for each and every miraculous birth. Infancy in this world is a continuation of the human story. It is not the beginning; it is another beginning. Mostly helpless and awkwardly cute, the little one is totally dependent upon other humans for life and sustenance. But other seasons await the child. Seasons of growth, discovery, learning, and loving, seasons marked by joy and sorrow. The world expands as we mature and then at some point it begins to contract. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die. At some intellectual level we understand the life cycle. Humans, however, are not really comfortable with the inevitable realities inherent in the life cycle. We live in a state of denial, unwilling to face the second half of the equation. We celebrate every birth as a gift from God, and we treat every death as an aberration. In God’s creation, the Biblical narrative, in our shared experience, it is clear that death is no less a part of the life cycle than birth. Both are in fact miracles, both are to be expected, both are inescapable, both are equally a part of God’s plan.
We were born to live, we were born to experience abundant life as a gift from God, we were born to love, to serve, to embrace our humanity. We were born to live, and we were born to leave. And that leaving will not be unlike our arrival. We will transition from the womb of mother earth, we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Safe in the presence of God we will be reborn, the journey will not end, it will continue. What will this new existence look like? No one knows. Given the reality of impending death, we place our faith in a mysterious God, we trust in something we cannot see or explain. There is a symmetry here; our arrival on planet earth occurred without our participation, planning or approval. We were not consulted by the Master of the Universe. It is all a part of the life cycle.
Can we make peace with our mortality? Are we comfortable with the life cycle? Not really. We will most likely continue to treat each birth as a miracle and each death as an aberration, but in God’s grand design one day we will go home. A magnificent new existence will be ours and there will be no desire to return to blessed seasons on planet earth.
One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, I am your,
Pastor Jim
