Have you noticed the colors in the trees this year? Intense. Gold. Crimson. And the blue of the sky. Clearer than usual, I think. I was wandering around the parking lot with Lucy, our Yorkshire terrier, when I spotted an aspen in the lot above our upper driveway.
On this particular day, the crown of gold was particularly striking in the afternoon sun as it was held aloft against cloudless sky. It took me a moment to realize as I stood there that I had been holding my breath. The colors were just so . . . clear. For a moment it almost seemed as if looking into the sky that day was like looking into infinity, into eternity. I can’t remember an occasion like it ever before.
As my attention returned to the more mundane surroundings of autumn, I caught sight of a row of thistles, past their prime, seed heads exploded, surrendering the next generation to every breeze and passing deer that happened by. They were at eye level on the berm just a few feet away. Farther away but towering above the thistles was the golden aspen against the sapphire vault of heaven. Earthbound, behind the thistles, the grasses of summer were turning yellow and lying down for their forever sleep. Looking up, gold and glory. Looking down, life spent and death.
It struck me in that moment that, as human beings, we have choices in this world, choices other species with which we share this space do not have. We have choices today that will affect our end, the outcome of our days.
One choice is this: live with our eyes upon eternity or with earthbound eyes? Live forever concerned with bigger things, greater things, eternal things, or live for now concerned only upon successfully completing our current life cycle? Live for glory or live merely to avoid death until death can no longer be avoided as the seasons of life change, out of our control, driven by forces beyond our touch?
Today, people are hungry. Today, people are poor. Today, people are hurting, wounded, and broken. Today, we ought to feed the hungry, help the poor, bind the wounds of the broken hearted. But what of tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and all the days after those until we stand at the door of the expanse death holds open for everyone. What of that time? What of that occasion? Ought we not also prepare ourselves and others for that day?
God seems to think the end, and all that lies beyond it, deserves consideration along with the needs that surround us in the now. God sent His Son, Jesus, from forever into the now, to show us the way to glory, the way to God, the way to stand before our Maker without fear and without guilt. Jesus died for us, so that, through faith in him, we might live beyond death. Jesus gave us a reason to look beyond the thistles and dying grasses of our lives and have hope, a glorious hope in an even more glorious heavenly Father.
On this beautiful autumn day in northeastern Minnesota, that’s the Good News.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor Dale McIntire who has served as pastor of the Cornerstone Community Church in Grand Marais since April of 1995.
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