Beyond the loss!

The above sights in our garden yesterday, the Easter Sunday, brought me some memories of hope. 

A flower opens, a fruit is about to be ready and a butterfly is being provided for. These three represent how life around us is being taken care of!

Until the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, death reigned as the ultimate. Since then, the hope of life transcends death. 

With no active response to settle the ethnic conflict in Manipur, the fierce fighting in Gaza and Ukraine, it is suffering and loss of human lives that dominate the daily events. 

Amidst such a gloom, we have a former president of a nation, going to elect a new president later this year, readying to fight election by selling Bibles for his election funding. We have a Prime Minister of another country, going to national election in a month, stifling the opposition by arresting the opposition leaders and freezing the accounts of the opposition political parties. We have a president of another nation, elected for the sixth time by suppressing the opposition, threatening to use nuclear war head in its war against the neighbouring country. All these announce oppression, hatred and autocratic domination. 

It is in the backdrop of these frightening events, the three photographs taken  on the Easter Sunday, offer me a transcendent view of life! Although suffering does not get abated, one is still left with hope and promise of peace and provision!

While reading the story of Ruth in the Old Testament of the Bible, I felt moved as to how Ruth accompanied her mother-in-law to go to Jerusalem, having lost her husband and father-in-law! Her journey from her homeland of Moab to Jerusalem was from one loss to another! But her decision to support her mother-in-law and herself by gleaning in the barley fields opened the door for her to meet Boaz, who  having been a distant relative, decided to redeem her and receive her as his wife!

I remembered a recent experience of loss, of suffering at the hands of people whom I had known closely for several years. I have been on a journey out of that loss for a few years now. 

In a dream yesterday, I felt being carried out of that loss into a field ready for harvest!

We live with our losses. The disciples of Jesus lived with their loss of Jesus since His ascension, but moved on to live their lives fruitfully in the service of others. The loss can renew life to give us a new horizon of the opportunities awaiting our attention. 

The Easter brought a turning point to my thoughts and feelings! Let me not stay grieving my loss, but find a passage to go beyond the crutches that I was leaning on! I got up in the morning with this effervescent thought !

A flower, fruits and a butterfly-symbols of hope, peace and goodness!

 

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)