Shade Tree Wisdom 10/12/07

Really cool this morning, but a few minutes of brisk walking made it comfortable and really enjoyable.

And I got to thinking of harvest time, and the end of things. I was reminded of this whole thing by a book I just read by Robert Fulghum – He of the “All I really needed to know I learned in Kindergarten” fame. He just wrote “What on Earth Have I Done?” He heard an exasperated Mom say to her son as she was dropping him off at school, “Billy What on EARTH have you done now?” It’s a Mother question, Fulghum writes, and there really is no answer.

But he says it is also a profound question. What have I done with my life? Most gravestones I see have two dates on them separated by a dash, the question becomes, “what happened then?” People wonder, and the Scripture offers answers here. The prophet Micah offers this, “He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”. Micah 6,8. Quite a statement. And we fall short of it.

Or Ecclesiastes offers “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom, in the grave where you are going.” Eccl. 9,10. Now there’s a truth worth considering too.

Then comes Jesus, “And THIS is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” John 6,29. Now we are closing in on a thought that gives us some comfort.

For here comes St. Paul in Ephesians 2,8 “For by grace you are saved, through faith, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. Ephesians 2, 8 – 10.

What on earth have I done? God planted faith into my heart in Holy Baptism. God directed this life according to the works He planned for me.

About 15 feet away from my window as I write stands a Loblolly Pine. The trunk measures nearly two feet in diameter, so it’s been standing and growing there for what, more than one hundred years? It just does that till I suppose a storm sends it toppling. (I just pray I won’t be sitting here when it comes through that window).

The question is really not, what have I done, but do I believe what God teaches me about His Son dying on the cross is true for me. Do I believe Jesus is My Lord and Savior? That is the ultimate, and saving, question, is it not?

GPD 10/12/07