Good morning…
“Aimlessness is akin to lifelessness,” writes a famous religious teacher of our day. His devotional went on to say, “Dead leaves in the backyard may move around more than the dog, more than the children. The wind blows this way, they go this way. The wind blows that way, they go that way. They tumble, they bounce, they skip, they press against a fence, but they have no aim whatsoever. They are full of motion and empty of life.”
He turns his focus to us. “God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blowing around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful – to have a focus and an aim for all of our days. What is yours today? What is yours for the new year? A good place to start is 1 Corinthians 10:31: “When you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
At first I liked his message. Be purposeful, not aimless, glorifying God in all you do. But over time the dead leaf analogy began to nag at me, to bother me, to rub me the wrong way. Then I went on a beach walk later in the day, and I came upon the calming collection captured in our opening photo, a heart-shaped “dead” leaf resting with a fallen feather and a dry strand of beach grass. I began to sense more deeply why I was nagged, bothered, rubbed the wrong way. Then a Scripture verse popped to mind.
Jesus said, “You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the ‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. When you look at a baby, it’s just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can’t see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.”
“So don’t be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be ‘born from above’—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God” (John 3:6-8, MSG).
Noticing this tiny trinity, a leaf, a feather, and a dry stalk of grass, I felt a deepening truth. These earthy elements are not “dead” and lifeless, these symbols of Spirit are glorifying God as they rest together on the sand. They are not aimless, “full of motion and empty of life.” They are life-giving to me as I am moved by the simple beauty of their peaceful state, and as I share this picture, some of you may also receive a gift from the same living Spirit. It is true. These natural items are no longer hanging colorfully on a growing branch or helping to lift the wing of a soaring bird or securing the sand in place with other blades of seagrass, but they are each exactly where the Spirit has placed them, for this season of their life.
As the winds of 2019 begin to pick up, may we be “born anew from above,” tumbling and bouncing, skipping and leaning into the unpredictable power of the Invisible moving the visible. And may we peacefully come to rest right where the Spirit places us today, glorifying God in all we do, during this season of our earthy life.
…Sue…
