Notes of Faith April 1, 2024
Good morning! He is Risen!!
I hope you had a meaningful Passion week as we recounted the suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We were able to enjoy a sunrise service on Sunday at the Hershey Gardens. Being in that setting made the angels, the empty tomb, and Mary’s conversation with the “gardener” so much more vivid and compelling!
As I walked around afterward, it seemed as if new life was bursting out all around us. The colors and scents of bright, beautiful blossoms and flowering trees were living parables of resurrection. A seed (or bulb or bud) had lain buried and hidden in darkness until a power greater than itself had called it out into the light.
It’s easy to praise a flower for its petals, fragrance, and beauty. It would be tempting to assume that producing a flower was the plant’s ultimate purpose and greatest glory. But any gardener knows that a deeper, much more vital work is at hand. That blossom is simply there to be pollinated and then wither and fall away as the real goal is accomplished—the formation of the seed. Long after the flower fades, leaves take in nutrients and nourish that embryonic life. And finally everything dies back, the fruit falls, and the plant enters a dormancy, or seeming death.
In the same way it can be tempting to glorify the Christian conversion experience. The moment that a human soul bursts into new life as it embraces Jesus is exciting, miraculous, and truly beautiful. But this is only the beginning of the story. Just like the flower, for Christ to be formed in us much of our natural beauty and strength must wither and be cast off, sacrificed to nurture the new life within us. The later stages of this growth takes place in such deep, hidden ways that it can look like ineffectiveness or dormancy to those around us.
Sometimes there is pressure to produce a lot of petals. Flowers are flashy and attract a lot of attention and affirmation. But do not cling to the first blush of vitality at the expense of the deeper life the great Gardener wants to grow and form in us. And while this might seem like an inward self-focus, when “it is no longer I who live but Christ in me,” the seed that falls to the ground is not our own, but that of Jesus, and He will spring up in the lives of others because of us.
May the resurrected Jesus live more and more fully in each of us!
Thanks again!
Deborah & Steve
Steve and Deb Wise are missionaries that we support prayerfully and financially. They help take care of and nurture other missionaries and pastors as well, reminding them to care for their own souls and deep, passionate walks with the Lord. I always appreciate Debs writings and both Steve and Deb as the work hard in serving the Lord and their fellow servants.
Pastor Dale