For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down,
that it will sprout again,
and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Though the root thereof was old in the earth,
And the stock thereof die in the ground;
Yet through the scent of water it will bud,
And bring forth boughs like a plant.

—The Book of Job (14:7-9)

No one among us would say, I think, that this is an easy time. Where is there an uplift of spirit? Certainly not among the news headlines, the situation in communities around the country, or the concern in our own homes. Yet…Yet…

In ancient wisdom we often find a perspective that has stood the test of time in its truth and usefulness.

The piece of ancient wisdom above, a little poem from the book of Job in The Hebrew Bible, asserts that green shoots do come, even out of dead wood fallen on the ground. Dr. Howard Thurman, a poet himself, writes in one of his sermons that brooding over all of life is the aliveness of life, an aliveness that no single event or experience can possibly exhaust. Here are a few of Dr. Thurman’s words:

There is inherent in the nature of life what I call “the growing edge.” We see it in nature; always vitality seems to be nestling deep within the heart of a dying plant…. no expression of life exhausts life. The spirit of life broods over every living thing…we cannot be prisoners of this event. We must not scale down the horizon of our hopes and our
dreams  and our yearnings to the level of the event of our lives… Life has an infinite creative possibility.

So, I’m going to go now to walk in my back yard. My eyes will be searching to spot a green shoot growing from what looks like a dead stick. If I don’t find one today, I believe I will find one tomorrow.

Love,

Elizabeth