September 24, 2016
Dear Christa—
As I hung out sheets this cool, clear fall day, I couldn’t
help noticing the zucchini that just a month ago was decimated in the short
minutes of a hail storm.
This morning I could see the plants have filled out new leaves
and 3 small zucchinis are getting larger by the day, just the way zucchini does.
All of nature is
designed to come back.
“Seed time and
harvest,” the world renews itself.
And so does mankind.
Research shows that people have a built in ability to
recover—sometimes quicker than what we’d expect—from the most devastating disasters.
Life has a way of throwing us hard balls, quick and
relentless. One day this week at lunch duty, I sat with a student who’d been rear-ended
on his way to a golf tournament. The car is a mess, but the guy—not so much so.
We chatted about how life can change in a moment.
We anticipate a day going the same as the day before and the
day before that.
Then—
In an instant, all changes. Sometimes, everything in
perspective, it can be relatively small— missing a tournament, losing a car.
Then there are times it changes all things, everything we
ever planned. In one moment life will never be the same. Yet, we walk on—one day
and one step at a time. We trust God even when we can’t comprehend Him.
And—
A day down the road, we realize we’ve turned a corner. We
know we’ll walk on—differently, yes—but we walk on. We may walk in a new
direction—often wiser and humbler than before—but we continue to grow. We push
out new leaves. We bear new fruit.
It’s the lesson of
the zucchini.
As I inspected the 3
little zucchinis at the base of new leaves, I said to myself:
Yep, there will be
zucchini bread this winter after all.
—the parishioner who
doesn’t do anything
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