I absolutely love summer. The warm weather, open windows, birds chirping, and longer days is a recipe for joy. I was made for summer. I have always thought I should have been born in Hawaii. Like Job, I look to heaven and declare that a mistake was made that I would like to fix.
Yet, endless summer isn’t a reality for me. I live near Chicago which means every year about this time, summer comes to an end. The leaves fall off the trees, the temperature drops, the windows close, animals aren’t out as much or leave entirely, and things begin to slow down. Lots of stuff dies.
I usually mourn this time. It’s not just the death of the leaves but the death of the time of the year I love the most. But this year, I am trying to look at it a little differently. It’s odd, but I am realizing that death is necessary for life. The leaves fall off the trees and die, but that very act is what produces the ability for something new to grow again in its place.
Jesus reflected upon the cycle of life and death and told his disciples, “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”[1]Jesus frequently reflected upon the Creation as a means of teaching a greater truth. In this instance, he used the death of a part of creation as a means to teaching that death is necessary for greater life to result. We die to ourselves in order to live our true life in Christ. A seed dies in order to become a plant that produces many seeds.
It turns out that the cycle of death and life is built into the very fabric of creation. We don’t really like death as human beings because we don’t like change. We have shown time and time again that we prefer things to stay just as they are. The thing is, we weren’t created to remain the same. God created a dynamic, moving, changing, shifting creation.
Death never gets the last word. The last word is that Jesus’ tomb is empty.
Such shifting and changing means things must die in order to produce new life. So, the leaves are falling and the warm weather is disappearing, but the door is also being opened for new, greater life to come in its place.
The same thing happens in life doesn’t it? We face change all the time. We frequently face death. Not just physical death but the death of a job, a period of our life, a relationship, or a thing we possessed. It’s hard to face such losses. But what if, even though it’s good to mourn and necessary to grieve, what if that’s not the end of the story?
If death opens the door to life, then death never gets the last word. The last word is that Jesus’ tomb is empty. That means resurrection is the last word. Death is never the end because life can and always does come out on the other side.
I invite you to get creative and look for the ways that this loss might be the very thing that clears the space, that provides the fertilizer for something new to grow.
I don’t know what loss you may be facing today. Maybe you are grieving over the change in seasons or maybe your life is being turned upside down in greater, more challenging ways. Wherever you might find yourself, I invite you to grieve the loss. But then I also invite you to get creative and look for the ways that this loss might be the very thing that clears the space, that provides the fertilizer for something new to grow. It might open the door for a change you never could have imagined. You might just be surprised at the life that can result.
For me, I have come to realize that my Job-like declaration that I have a better way lacks perspective (just like Job’s did). Loss is hard and isn’t always God’s plan, but it is also never the end of the story. The tomb is empty. The seed can produce a crop. Our Father “works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”[2]
Grace and Peace be with you.
[1]John 12:24 NIV
[1]Romans 8:28 (NIV)
