It’s Not Over Yet!

Everything vibrant is going to seed: 
burgundy tufts on the yellowing grass, 
slender filaments lined with beans 
drooping down between withering leaves, 
millet high on the dusty stalks, 
papaya clusters, lemons, limes -- 

all reminders that it is time 
to pass on the treasure of living life, 
to breed a crop of who we are: 
succulent fruit and shade from the heat, 
life-giving grain, soft carpets for feet 
time for the aged to go to seed 

till all is renewed, born again, re-viewed, 
so nothing is lost in the crush of death 
but instead finds hope: it’s not over yet!  
another round of growth and struggle 
while we all wait for the re-creation: 
new earth, new sky, new bodies too 

that will never ever ever die! 

When I wrote the above poem I was in the tropical woodland savanna climate in northern Côte d’Ivoire. It was late October. Leaves were dropping from the trees, and even grasses were going to seed. Soon the “winter wind”, the harmattan, would be whooshing down out of the cool Sahara nights. It would strip the trees bare and seed pods would fall. The grasses would dry up and slump over.

Here in Michigan the last colored leaves are being stripped from their branches by high winds. Autumn is getting ready to go to bed; life is ending for certain plants.

That is the picture  of mortality that is underlined in Psalm 90 (attributed to Moses, perhaps coming out of the disastrous reactions of Israel to his lengthy stay on Mt. Sinai). He writes:

³ You return mankind to the dust, saying, “Return, descendants of Adam.” ⁴ For in Your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night. ⁵ You end their lives; they sleep. They are like grass that grows in the morning– ⁶ in the morning it sprouts and grows; by evening it withers and dries up. (Ps. 90:3-6 CSB).

It is intriguing that this Psalm is the first reading assigned three days in a row this week, the First Week of Advent, in the revised common lectionary. Why so much emphasis on the shortness of life, when the theme of this week is hope? The world around us is dark, full of humans who hurt each other and break God’s commands. As a result his anger at their crimes results in punishment, some of it just the reality of the consequences of their evil acts, some of it specifically engineered by the King of the Universe.

For we are consumed by Your anger; we are terrified by Your wrath.You have set our unjust ways before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence. For all our days ebb away under Your wrath; we end our years like a sigh. Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.  (Ps. 90:7-10 CSB)

So why read this psalm when the theme is supposed to be hope?

It is because of the truth and faithful reliance on God’s goodness that is sandwiched in between the laments. Looking back the psalmist affirms this:

You have been our refuge in every generation. Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.  (Ps. 90:1 CSB)

And looking forward, we know that our God will continue to be our refuge and will listen to our prayers. We look around us in desperation. We look to him, and ask him for the wisdom we need to navigate the swamp:

¹² Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. ¹³ LORD– how long? Turn and have compassion on Your servants. ¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with Your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days. ¹⁵ Make us rejoice for as many days as You have humbled us, for as many years as we have seen adversity. ¹⁶ Let Your work be seen by Your servants, and Your splendor by their children. ¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands– establish the work of our hands! (Ps. 90:12-17 CSB)

How should we “number our days”? Recognizing our mortality, we must look to our eternal God to make our limited lifespan meaningful. If we experience his compassion, his faithful love, in the morning of each day—or in the morning of our lives—then we find joy. We do not find that kind of deep inner happiness by focusing on ourselves or on the world we live in. No! We find it when we are looking to him, heart-eyes fixed on him. We want to see what he is doing and participate in it, because due to his kind favor to us, we can ask him to “establish the work of our hands!” Work done in line with his purpose, under his supervision and empowered by his love, Is meaningful. Even though we struggle and meet tough stuff along the way, the eternal God who has always been our refuge will listen to the prayer of his servants, his dear ones, and work in and through them. Evening will come, and we look forward to it!

The end-goal of our hope is our confidence that this God is the one who sent his Son to conquer death, rise to life, and prepare the way for us to join him in eternal joy in a brand new world! One of the other readings this week is in Revelation 22, where the Lord God promises that although it seems as though this broken world is lasting forever and those set apart for him are in need of ongoing transformation, he is preparing the New World, a perfect city, for them. He says:

Let the unrighteous go on in unrighteousness; let the filthy go on being made filthy; let the righteous go on in righteousness; and let the holy go on being made holy.” ¹² “Look! I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ¹⁴ “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates.  (Rev. 22:11-14 CSB)

There we have a stunning picture of the solid hope that is being made ready for us. The “holy” people are those who are consecrated to God, set apart to follow him and serve him. What do they need? Ongoing submission to the work of God’s Spirit in their lives, the one who is changing them to become like him! “Don’t give up, “he says. “Just be sure to focus on what matters. Accept my forgiveness (I wash your robes!) and my promise of life that will last forever with me, the one who is before everything and after everything: the Eternal One!”

We don’t know when Jesus will return, but we do know where we are to focus our hope, and someday we will arrive at the destination that is waiting for us! For now, knowing that eternal death has been conquered by our Master, we just keep on doing each day what he gives us to do. When done for him, it matters:

⁵⁶ Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:56-58 CSB)