Musings About Life

I saw a post from a friend on Facebook today. It showed two children playing under a young tree, then the two young people holding hands as the tree grows, then the husband and wife embracing as the tree reaches maturity, then the elderly couple with canes standing next to each other under the same tree, then the husband sitting next to the wife's grave under the tree which is beginning to die, and then both graves under the dead tree. Food for thought.

The Two of Us

The post reminded me that several of the trees on our property have completed their cycle and have died or are in the process of dying. I suppose they are a metaphor for our life. There is no cure for my husband's illness. It's been attacking him, little by little to devastating effect, for over a decade. But there's also no guarantee that I won't go first.

Life. It's so simple when you're a child, so full of possibility and excitement when you're young and anticipating your future. You find comfort in each other as you mature as a couple, assuming you've been blessed with a loving partner. You expect to take care of each other through your "golden years." And when life ends, it generally ends in the usual way:  First one of you leaves the other, and then -- lonely and brokenhearted -- the one who stays behind waits until it's time to go, too.

It sounds a bit depressing, doesn't it? But it isn't, really. It's life. It begins, it unfolds, it ends. Look at a flower, for instance. The seed is placed in the ground. Pretty soon, the plant starts to grow. Exciting! And then there's a bud where a flower waits to make it's appearance. The anticipation! Seemingly from one day to the next, the flower has bloomed. It's so beautiful. It smells fantastic. The color is brilliant, captivating. And then it fades and dries up. Its seed falls to the ground.

But that isn't the end of the story! The seed lies dormant until the rains come, the sun shines, and it's time for it to germinate. Then -- impossibly, magically -- a new plant springs up. Exciting! Rebirth. Hope.

Death isn't the end of our story, either. Our Hope is in the Lord. Our Future is with Him in the place He has prepared for us. On that day, He will welcome us to our forever home. There will be no sickness, no death, no tears, no sorrow. And so, no matter how beaten down and sad and worn out I might feel at times during our present hardship, I have a Friend. I know I am not alone. There's always Another with me, standing next to me, holding me up, and urging me on. I have a Hope, and I have a Future.

There's nothing so lost He can't find it. There's nothing so broken He can't mend it. There's nothing so dead He can't breathe life into it. His love never fails.

Psalm 136:1