"Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24

Earth Day is tomorrow. There's no better time to get your hands in some soil, connect with creation, and support something living. On the first Saturday in April, at the Kid's Eggstravaganza, I got several pine saplings from our Creation Care Ministry and planted them in my backyard which you can see here.

I find planting things is a spiritual experience. God made the world with this incredible capacity to grow. After the death of winter, life appears again and keeps going. As Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, "life finds a way." 

The earth is a physical symbol of the spiritual truth we see in Jesus' resurrection. Death could not hold him. Grave's grip was broken. Life found a way. What the Bible declares, and the earth expresses, and maybe our own experiences confirm, God is always ready to spring forth and do a new thing. Nothing can stop it. 

That doesn't mean nothing can thwart it. Or reroute it. Or divert it. Sometimes events in life, particularly the awful kind, are not God's Plan A for creation. Yet, not even the worst in life stops God from working. Life keeps coming forth. New things emerge and grow again. Death may reign for a day, but it cannot last. Easter put an expiration date on death. 

This is much of what we will be considering Sunday as we think about what it means to believe in God's activity, that God works for good in everything. I hope you will join us. In the meantime, let me leave you with a great quote from Frederick Buechner about Easter. "Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing." 

See you Sunday,

Rob

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