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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman
My
Bleeding Heart No, my
heart is not bleeding. I'm
not on my death bed. I'm not
writing about the organ in my chest.
I'm writing about our bleeding heart plant in our backyard family
room from which I derive a godly principle. Since
God is the universal Creator, I believe we can see glimpses into His
nature by what we observe in creation, and that includes our bleeding
heart plant. For the record,
I'm not a Pantheist who believes that creation is God.
The Genesis account portrays God to be distinctly separate from
His creation; but still, creation does reveal some aspects of God's
nature, as Romans 1:20 states. "For
since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his
eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that people are without
excuse." God's
invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, are seen in
what He creates. So, when I
ponder over our backyard family room, with its artistically designed
garden, I see hints into the essence of God.
We have
one type of bleeding heart plant in our garden that is the first plant
to blossom its way out of winter dormancy each spring.
It's also the first plant to die off.
By the end of June it looks deathly sick.
The temptation is to chop it down to the ground and set a potted
plant over top its grave as a memorial of past beauty, but that is a mistake. Allowing
the bleeding heart to naturally decay into another season of dormancy is actually
a productive process. While
the visible part of the plant dies, its soul, its roots are vitalized with
nourishment that gives birth to next year's blossoms, and in this
process of decay the leads to rebirth, I see a godly principle. It's
difficult for me to believe that this year, on December 4, 2021, I will
be seventy years old. I have
more of my life to reflect upon than to anticipate.
That's why older people bore younger people with their memories
of what they perceive to be the good old days.
Like our
bleeding heart plant, as my body decays, my life still has purpose.
Also like the bleeding heart plant, during the process of decay,
the invisible me is being nourished.
With this in mind, 2 Corinthians 4:16 reads:
"Therefore
we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly
we are being renewed day by day." Jesus
Himself used a natural law of creation to express what I'm saying.
He said that unless a seed is buried into the ground, it remains
a single seed, but once buried, it will produce fruit of new life (John
12:24). So, I take heart as 2 Corinthians 4:16
admonishes.
Despite my outward decay, I will be re-born, blossoming forth with a
crown of life in the next life. James
1:12 states. "Blessed
is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test,
that person will receive the crown of life
that the Lord has promised to those who love him."
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