We all know what it looks like. We see the lifeless tree trunks and the brown ground beneath – the aftermath of a forest fire. Possibly started by an illegal campfire that got out of control, this past June a raging fire burned more than 13,500 acres in the Wharton State Forest. It all looked so dead.
But the pitch pines are forged in fire. In fact, the Native American tribes used to use controlled fire as a way of improving hunting conditions. The seed cones pop open in fire, creating new growth. And within the month, just this past week, signs of new growth had already begun appearing.
So it is with life. We are not only forged in birth but in death. As those we love die around us, we experience new growth within us. We mourn our loss, but we can also find new meaning in our own lives as we grieve. Like new life in the Pine Barrens, it comes slowly but surely as seed pods break open.
Prayer for the Day
The light of your revelation grows among us, O God,
Even as the dawn comes later every morning now;
Forgetful of your sovereignty over our seasons and our fears,
We remain trapped in our inability to grow in your Spirit..
Help us overcome our dusky gloom and erase the habits
That bind us to the old rather than searching for the new.,
We ask this in the name of the One who opens our minds,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.”
- Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (1821-1880)
To walk attentively through a forest, even a damaged one, is to be caught by the abundance of life: ancient and new; underfoot and reaching into the light.
- Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, from The Mushroom at the End of the World
For as the rain and snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there until they have watered the earth,
Making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
It shall not return to me empty, but shall accomplish that which I purpose,
And succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55: 10-11