What Appears to Be the End, Isn’t.
I don’t take loss and brokenness very well sometimes. My first urge is to fix it. I’m not done with this tool or device yet; there’s so much more I want to do with it. I study how to repair an item, and then I go to my workbench, and do the best I can. Sometimes, I even impress Cheryl!
I grieve similarly over a frustration, a broken heart, a lost relationship, or a life lost by death. I can’t go to my workbench and fix any of these. I believe that only God can fix these kind of profound breakages.
To help us believe that He can, God has planted messages here on earth for us to see the possibility that He can fix even the most difficult breakages, like those caused by death. God gives us reason to hope.
I see this hope in shoots that spring from chopped-down tree stumps. I see it in buds and flowers that burst from dormant, frozen tree limbs. I see it in caterpillars that turn into butterflies, and polliwogs that turn into frogs. I see it in eclipses of the Sun and the Moon. I see it daily, from sunrise-to-sunrise. I see it annually in the life-and-death cycle of our trees and food crops.
The ultimate proof of God giving us hope beyond our graves is when He resurrected His Son from the grave. God conquered death to let us know that there is so much more to our story and to our usefulness to Him. Death, like nighttime and winter, is only temporary. Death is defeated by life (I Cor. 15:54), like darkness is defeated by light. Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrected (I Cor. 15:20); mankind is next!
Death is not our end! “He is risen indeed!” (Lk. 24:34) Praise God!
|
