Life is Tenacious

The other day my husband, daughter, and I went on a hike in the mountains.  At one point we got lost, and we were just wandering through the mountain.  It was breathtaking.  I had never been off-trail before - this was my very first experience really being in the deep of nature.  The fresh moss and grass padded our feet.  The high, arching branches shaded us from the sun.  The gentle breeze constantly refreshed us.  There was a constant variety to the scenery - sometimes lots of leaves on the ground, sometimes rocky terrain.  Sometimes the climb was so steep I had to use all four limbs, but there would be a level grassy area, giving our muscles a break.  "This is a human's natural habitat," I realized at one point as I sat down and watched a rush of wind make the trees dance.  We weren't created to live walking on hot, mercilessly glaring concrete with radios blasting.  This was home.  I would have no idea how to live in a home like that, but I felt so much more human there.  

Today I had to drive some distance.  In my car, on the road, I felt a pain as I drove over the slab of concrete that pressed itself upon the ground.  It felt like a bruise upon the earth.  I am overwhelmed when I think about the extent of how out of touch we are as humans with the good habitat that God created for us.  It hurts.  It hurts us.  The Bible begins, continues, and ends with the story of how God wills the existence of life - abundant life.  And the Bible also constantly describes how humans are constantly throwing a slab of concrete over the places where life - our own lives - should be.  I feel this at work in my own heart.  Years of living in a world full of sinful people who have hurt me.  Years of living as a sinful person who has hurt others.  There are places in my brain and my heart where instead of abundant life and life-giving fruit there is nothing but concrete pressing itself down upon my soul.  The forces of death and destruction are overwhelming.  And yet, what would happen if a road was left all alone for a time?  After awhile, life would break through it.  The concrete would crack and separate, and up would sprout plants.  Life is tenacious.  As overwhelming as the concrete is, it is a mistake to underestimate the power of life.

And so I pray today that God, the Creator of all, the One who so loves life that He made it so tenacious, the One who so loves life that He sent His Son to conquer death once and for all, that the great and glorious Living One Who Is would cause life to break through the concrete that has sadly been laid over our own hearts.  That life would spring up from the ground in our own soul in ever more abundant ways.  That we would know the abundant life for which we were created.  That we would experience being truly human, in the image of the living God himself.  O God, I know were are not at all worthy of this, but I pray that you would glorify yourself through us anyway.  Amen.