I stepped out of my car in a hurry. The store was closing in eight minutes. I needed to get inside quickly. As I strode through the parking lot the raking light of the setting sun set a tiny tuft of grass afire. It was as if a beam of light just grazed these few blades. The sunlight must have broken through a cloud or a gap in the buildings. I stopped and took a picture. There was something so joyful in the little tuft surrounded by a sea of stone.
The green testifies to the coming of spring and the relentless heat of summer (not a fan) that is just around the corner. The plant has been hunkered down in this crack through the dark days of winter just waiting for the world to lean again toward the sun. As the world has grown in light so the miracle of photosynthesis has begun and these tiny blades have been converting sunlight to life.
The crack does not stand a chance. This plant will relentlessly pursue life. It will push and expand. It will drink in the CO2 gather the power of the sun and grow. The asphalt will have to give way. The plant will give it no choice. I have tons of pictures of plants growing in unlikely places. I am drawn to them. I love seeing a vine stretching across a wide expanse clawing toward the sun.
Sometimes I feel like this. The world around seems dead. I teach about life, I preach about life, but the vast desert seems to keep expanding. Sometimes, I wish I could be a stick of dynamite that would, in a blast, turn the world upside down, but God seems to have called me to use the process of time and pressure to bring about change. In a world of quick fixes and the promise of easy solutions the word in the Bible that keeps rattling around in me is endurance. This is our calling- the relentless pursuit of the grace and love of Jesus. To go this downward path, this way of suffering, is to seek character and ultimately deep down, the bedrock of hope.
Don’t give up. Keep pursing the way of Jesus. It will win.