The Cycles of Life

 

In just the span of a couple of days, I walked by this lone lily and noticed a big transformation. At first, there was one beautiful, perfectly formed blosssom. Then the blossom began to wither and fade. But at the same time a new bud appeared, seemingly in a day. The old dying blossom is drawing near to the moment that it will pass the baton to the new. One fades. Another blooms. The beauty continues on.

The philosopher of Ecclesiastes writes, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north, round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.”

While these observations can lead us, like this writer of long ago, to question the meaning of life, they can also lead us to celebrate the constancy of God’s ongoing act of creation. The cycles of life can also lead us to a place of faith in the presence of God through all life brings. The cycles of life can point us to the eternal and to the God of all time - past, present and future. The cycles of life can remind us that we, too, have a place in this vast, marvelous creation. We can choose to live each day with wonder in our hearts.

Peace.