As I write this, I look out the windows of my house and see a gloriously sunny, if nippy, spring day. The sunshine lifts my spirits. But it's not the only thing contributing to my outlook as I take in the new morning.
One of my windows frames a view of a six-foot tall Buckeye tree that we planted last fall. It stands in a spot formerly occupied by a Box Elder we were forced to cut down in August.
God is amazing! In His infinite realm, death can be succeeded by new life, eulogies supplanted by euphoria, mourning turned into morning, Good Fridays followed by Easters. The Buckeye tree springs green where once a proud, dying tree stood.
Sometimes, when I look into the mirror, I catch a similar sight. Oh, my exterior may be deteriorating. That's the way it is with the things of earth. They die.
Yet God has created and is creating a new me, one that will live on and on. The old me still rears its nasty head and does things that are heedless of God and of others, that are imbued with death and lovelessness. I hate observing those things when I look through the window into my soul.
But the once-dead, now-risen Savior of the world has also taken up residence in my life. He lives in me and with me and, helping me to live in what Luther called, "daily repentance and renewal," this Savior--Jesus, true God and true man--has set a grand reclamation project into motion.
The old Mark is dying. One day, I'll go the way of the old Box Elder.
The new Mark is rising. God is causing me to grow and one day, when I see my Lord face to face, I will be new and as pure as the One Who died and rose for me.
Truth is, God already made me new and one special day, I'll be newer still. When I look at the Buckeye tree this morning, reaching out to the sun, I remember that.
PS: My beloved OSU Buckeyes football team hasn't lost a game since we planted the tree!
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