Brushpile Theology

Have you ever had one of those moments when something simple...perhaps even mundane...perhaps something even unpleasant..suddenly took on a deeper and unexpected meaning?

It happened to me the other day. Call my experience a parable.

I finally attacked the pile of brush that had lain beside the garage since fall, and had grown significantly this spring. It was time—time to haul it to the recycling center. It was one of those chores–and it was a chore–that I dreaded. But, finally, I dug in. After 2-1/2 hours of loading, compacting, and tying into the pick-up, I finally hauled that dry, dead pile of brush to its new home.

The banner on my cell phone exhorts me to "Pay Attention". It’s my way of reminding myself that God is constantly at work in the world and in my life. Always the problem is...me. Too often I ignore my own reminder. But this time, God broke through. Maybe that’s one of the gifts of sabbatical–more time to pay attention without the incessant and sometimes oppressive urgency of clock and calendar and to-do list driving me.

As I unloaded my pile of brush, next to me was a man loading his pick-up. He was loading it with ground up brush–mulch–that he would use to spread around and under plants and trees, mulch that would hold the precious moisture in our dry state, mulch that would keep the weeds down, mulch that would nurture life.

And soon, I knew, that would be my brush. My dead, dry brush would be turned to life-giving mulch, nurturing life in someone else’s yard.

And I thought to myself, "Hmmm...isn’t that just like God! Taking what’s dead–in this case, dead brush–and redeeming it, giving it a life-giving purpose."

Yes, isn’t that just like God, bringing life out of death: in a pile of brush, even in my life, in God’s church, and throughout God’s creation. Isn’t that just like God–again and again, where there seems to be only death, bringing resurrection and life!

Enough for now. It’s time to go water the flowers.

Hmmm...water. I wonder if there’s a parable in that?