Life

               We were working in the garden today, and, as its spring, our blueberry bushes have started budding. They’re really pretty right now, everything is. Now, one of our bushes was dead. At least, that’s what we all thought. Today though, there are small leaves and flower buds. It came back.

               When winter comes, most plants go into hibernation. All the leaves fall off and you’re left with skeletons of trees. They look dead. But then spring seemingly brings life back. Everything wakes up again. The same can be said of our lives. Before Jesus, we were spiritually dead (as I said in my last post). We’re empty, seeking to fill ourselves through desires and actions. But through death, we are able to live. We have the gift of new life.

               In the words of Toby Morrell of Emery (Salvatore Wryhta), “The promise of the dead is that they won’t be back again.” I have to disagree. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we can live. We have hope. The blueberry bush showed me that nothing is ever really dead. There is still hope, there’s still a future. We don’t have to rot away.

               Some of us have given up, like that bush. We create expectations for God and expect him to fit inside our box but He doesn’t. He can’t. And once something happens, we can give up on our version of Him because our picture wasn’t what we had hoped it would turn out to be. Winter comes and there’s no sign of spring, only cold front after cold front. I’m here to tell you that there is hope. Jesus rose again on the third day after having been crucified on a cross and buried in a sealed, guarded tomb. He came back and we have life because of that.

               Winter always ends. Spring always returns. There is life to be found.