No More Mourning

Gorgeous day yesterday...70 degrees, sunny....but I was stuck indoors because it was a work day for my Destination Imagination team. The State tournament is 19 days away...and we have yet to practice the whole thing. Our set isn't yet done. However, the team made good progress, and it is possible that we will be ready in time....From what I could tell from the pieces, they have something that could be spectacular. I will continue to hope for things unseen....

Meanwhile, our tree out front is crying. My husband, who loves to play with chain saws, cut off a bunch of branches of my favorite tree in the front yard. He often waits till I drive away, and then busts out the chain saw. The tree has a large puddle at its base because water...or tree blood...is cascading out of the place where a large branch used to be.  One of my DI kids pointed it out to me and asked, "Is that ok?"

No. In my mind, this is definitely not ok. My tree is crying, or bleeding....I can't believe two or three days of leaking whatever trees leak is a good thing. I am not a tree expert, but it just looks terribly sad to me.

However, to tell you the truth, if I were nature, I'd be crying too. The world does not seem to be headed in the right direction. I feel that especially keenly on Mondays, my day to volunteer as a sidewalk counselor at the abortion center.  It is not surprising creation is mourning.

However, we are not to grieve like those who have no hope. We who know that Jesus rose from the dead and saved us from our sin, we who know that our salvation and eternity are secured, we who know that this world will pass away, but God's kingdom will endure -- we should not mourn as others mourn, or as trees who have lost their limbs mourn. Every tear, every drop of sap, will be wiped away, and death and mourning will be no more. When that day comes, I can surmise from the glimpses I have seen that it will be spectacular.

Meanwhile, I will hide the chain saw...

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1 Thessalonians 4:13 

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Psalm 31:9-10 

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

Isaiah 26:3 

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

Revelation 21:4 

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”