Walking my dog MoMo this morning offered a few moments of quiet before a busy day. The air was chilly and calm. I could hear birds calling and singing from amidst the branches of bare trees. The sky was a clear baby blue, with traces of red & pink lining a few scattered clouds as the sun rose.
I realized as I looked around me that this beautiful autumn morning…could just as easily be a beautiful spring morning. Without leaves on the trees to identify the season, there was almost no way of knowing whether it was a day in the midst of a season of dying…or a day in the midst of a season of rebirth.
Where in your life & in your world do you feel yourself worrying that a season of death may be approaching? Could it be that a season of new life is dawning instead?
Yes, and when a seed falls into the ground is it dying or being born? Well, both, according to Jesus and others like me, who wonder if the dying and letting go that happens in our congregations can also be the opportunity for the Spirit to grow new things.
Some folk see winter as a time of death, but I see it as a time of preparation, a time of invisible growth – growth that happens underneath the surface, without which the glories of spring would never be quite as wonderous.