Day 4--Something out of nothing

My volunteer sunflower--something out of nothing.

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” -Albert Einstein

Yesterday I wrote of seeds, how plain they seem when I plant them.  Who would ever suppose that a towering oak or majestic sunflower would grow from such an ordinary thing? The mystery of this transformation is the great miracle of gardening...and life.  You can't start from point A and get to point B without some serious faith in between.

One of my favorite passages in scripture touches upon this transformation of a seed:

But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.  But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.  1 Corinthians 15:35-38

A calendula on its way to seed...I think beautiful in its own right.

As I cannot logically make sense of how a tiny "dead" seed becomes a new  and gorgeous living thing, I cannot make sense of how a dead body could be resurrected into anything but more death.  

However, Paul is just the sort of person I need to help me connect the two.  He's refreshing in his honesty and vigor.  He called a fool a fool.  Paul was no dummy and certainly not the romantic type who could breath life out of death if it wasn't certainly the case:

 "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." 1 Corinthians 5:19

"And why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work?  I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I'd do this if I wasn't convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus?  Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn't be the end of me? Not on your life! It's resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there's no resurrection, "We eat, we drink, the next day we die," and that's all there is to it. "
1 Corinthians 5:30-32

Paul lived with the fear and reality of death daily.  He put his life on the line, not out of wishful thinking, but because he was firmly convinced of the truth of Christ's resurrection.

How does bodily resurrection work?  I have no clue.  My analytical mind tries to piece together bones to flesh, ashes to life, something from nothing and comes short every time.

But, I do know that He gave us a pattern of the grand whole in miniature to reassure us.  I am comforted and encouraged every time I see a sprout spring up from the common seed.  I think of Paul's analogy as I watch the sprout grow into a form I'd never be able to guess by looking at the rather ordinary seed.   It's always a miracle of sorts:

"Some skeptic is sure to ask, "Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this 'resurrection body' look like?"  If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing.  We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a "dead" seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don't look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different. 

So is it with the resurrection of the dead.  1 Corinthians 15:35-38, The Message

Hibiscus in bloom---who can guess the glorious end from the beginning?

So although I cannot get from A to B in my head, I hold fast to the reality that Paul was first a skeptic and cynic, as was I.  Every spring I watch plants grow from common seed.  In the summer, I watch them bloom and fruit.  In the fall, I let them diminish into ugly as they fall to the ground to begin anew.  

I think of those who have gone before me, both my parents, in the ground, waiting like seeds. And their parents who came before them, and their parents before them, all quietly waiting, a field of seeds sleeping through a winter of nows...  

Thankfully, Paul tells us, it's not the end game:

"What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." -1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Every time a person plants a seed, there is a chance to watch the pattern in action---the ordinary turned into the extraordinary time and time again.