Vegas

Today I visited the place where my old friend Vegas died. He had lived 36 years, for a horse this is quite old. The morning he didn't show up at the barn alarmed us and a careful search found him lying in the far corner of the pasture. He had lived a full life and we left him where he had chosen. It was a good resting place. As I walked by this patch of ground this morning I thought of him and all the fun times we had had. I paused and looked at the place where his body had lain. There is nothing to see now, all the traces of him are gone, but then I noticed something that really caused me to think. Like a spiritual mystery unfolding before my eyes. You see, I noticed that the grass was far taller and greener in the place Vegas had lain. Now I know there are "scientific" reasons for this, his body decayed and fertilized the ground, true. But, don't you love the buts of life, but as I stood there I knew there was more to understand, a deeper spiritual truth. So I prayed, God show me a mystery beyond the normal scientific explanation.

Here's what I have. Could it be that there is no place more alive than the place where something has died? Could it be that God is so about life that  death is only seen as a place to bring more abundant life than ever was there before?

This is seen when we read passages such as Luke 9:24 "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." I have always heard this as dying to yourself. Not my will, not my wants, but yours Jesus. In doing that we are more alive than we have ever been.

We know those we love who pass on before us have been promised new resurrected life in Christ that is beautiful far beyond our comprehension and imagination. What an excellent promise of God.

But my mind wasn't on these things this morning. My thoughts were all about the other stuff. The things we all have seen die. Hope. Love. Peace. A dream. A promise. A friendship. A marriage. What about these things? Will we see this life springing from the death of these kind of things? I am convinced we will. I am fully persuaded God desires to bring new life to every place in our lives that we have experienced loss. The question for me is this, will I believe? Will I trust? Will I lay my loss down at His throne and wait for the new life to spring up. The thing only The One and Only can do?

Ya, I think I will. How bout you?