Creation Speaks: In the Face of Death...

Creation Speaks is a Biblical teaching ministry that uses nature writing and photography to glorify our Creator and teach the truth of creation. “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" Job 12:7-9

"We live in the face of death, but it has resulted in eternal life for you." 2 Corinthians 4:12 New Living Translation
 
Wednesday, 11:16 AM - Nature does not always live up to the romantic notions we have of a calming, peaceful walk in the woods, along pristine trails, besides pure waterfalls. Within the wild, we are often confronted with the harsh reality of survival and death. Though we spend much unconscious effort pushing the reality of death out of our view and consciousness, the certainty of death ever surrounds us.
 
On a hot, muggy Wednesday afternoon I walked to the gravel road that circles the upper pond. Wiping sweat and spider webs from my face as I walked among the dry, dead leaves and pine needles crunching underneath my feet I noticed a morbid scene: the remains of a Blue Jay. It was just a pile of feathers; no bones; no body; no blood. The scene brought up many questions, but only two facts could be ascertained: it was a BlueJay, and it was no longer alive.
 
The scene seemed to raise more questions than it answered. What got it? How did it get it? Was it a fledgling or an adult? Where was the body? Was it plucked and then eaten? Why didn’t it consume the feathers? How could a bird with the capability of flight get caught? Was it caught by another bird, like a hawk? The questions could flow unending.
 
Death often raises questions, especially when it is that of a younger person we feel it was too early to lose. Why did she have to die? Why did God take them? What happens after death? Where do we go when we die? Why happens to our body? Does our mind live on? What can I do to live longer? Even the Christians of Paul’s day had questions in the face of death: “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’”[i]
 
While considering this photo of the Jay’s remnants and being faced with a journaling ‘dead end’, on a random urging, I put my journal away and flipped to a random entry in the book More than Words. That random entry happened to be “death”. It read, “The death of the body, of course, occurs when physical life leaves it. The Old Testament recognizes the fact that we all die. But the death of Jesus Christ brought about an enormous change in the way Christians think about death. The New Testament teaches us that Christ Himself experienced death and in so doing destroyed its power: He rose from the dead.” Though death can raise many questions, the death and resurrection of Christ are great and certain facts.
 
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”[ii]
 
Though it seems contradictory and is truly a paradox, it is nevertheless true: life comes from death; and nature teaches us as much. It may seem cruel, but some other animal goes on living, nourished by the death of this Jay. It is cruel, but by Jesus’ death comes our life. And not only eternal life, but a more fulfilled life in the present. Although we must still be prepared to meet God, the Christian does not need to be afraid and walk his entire life in anxiety, questioning death. As Paul again wrote, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [iii]

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[i] 1 Corinthians 15:35 English Standard Version
[ii] 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
[iii] 1 Corinthians 15:55, 57 King James Bible