After receiving this news, I walked the dog, and made the picture included below. It is a picture of a leaf in the snow. This leaf has been hanging around a long time, because it is now very late in March, and we’ve had snow on the ground since November, at least. The leaf’s fragility and desiccation feel poignant given my friend’s current condition. An old, fallen leaf. It can’t revive, live, or give life. It can’t return to the tree from which it came. It can only fade, decay, become less substantial.
But a human life is not like this leaf. For those who die in faith, there is a home set apart by Jesus. He will come and take us to that home after we fall off the tree of this life. There, we will live; and then we will live again in the life of the resurrection—restored and raised to a new kind of life, re-connected, forever connected, to the Vine of Life in resurrection. Thanks be to God!
