Recently we had a tree and some large bushes cut down, leaving several stumps to deal with. After having seen our neighbor use a natural method to encourage the stump to deteriorate on its own, we decided to do the same thing. It is now covered up with mulch over several other layers including a tarpaulin to hold the moisture in and let nature take its course over the winter.
Decomposition is part of the earthly cycle, so long as earth elements are involved. Compost piles make rich soil with lots of nutrients – often there will be growth coming forth on and around the compost pile. Gardeners pay good money to have rich fertilizer. Think about where we get some of the richest natural fertilizers – usually when animals have extracted all the good they can out of the food they eat and this is what’s left!
How much more amazing that God can take all the leftovers, the broken and discarded pieces of our life, things that may be ugly and stinky and we think could serve no purpose – and he takes us and them and creates something glorious and praiseworthy out of the remains of our lives, as we give it all to him!
He doesn’t ask us to get all cleaned up and pretty and sweet smelling before he can work in us and bless others through us. In fact, he says there’s nothing we can do about it. We can’t take away our own natural sin nature. Only God through Jesus can give us a new pure nature – a new spirit he puts in us.
“For it is by grace we are saved, and not works.” Therefore, it is not of our own doing. There is nothing we can do to save us. Only God’s grace is good enough to fill the requirement he set to save us from ourselves and the cost of sin on our lives. So he had to provide the solution, the answer to our great need. His answer was in Jesus, not only living out the life on earth to show us how to do the same, but paying the ultimate cost of death for us.
He showed us how to even have power over the grave! It is that power – in both life and death – that we have ac
cess to as Christ followers (Christians). It quickens and revives our dead spirits – our lasting and eternal nature. That is what comes to life and makes us realize that the natural physical part of us is just temporary, with thoughts and feelings and desires tied to this physical earth. When we let the air out of our natural human nature, the ties holding us down like a hot air balloon to the physical sensory realm are loosed, and we are free to rise above and gain a new perspective from the spiritual vantage point.We’re involved as part of the cycle of life as well. Not only am I referring to “from ashes to ashes, dust to dust” regarding our elemental chemical physical nature. That part of us comes to live on earth for a short time in light of eternity. But our spirits will last forever. What we allow to happen while here determines what will continue beyond time.
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1 comment:
Hi,
Wonderful post, thanks for the info. Moreover Compost Piles are Not Just for Hippies Anymore...
One of the most powerful air pollutants is the naturally occurring organic gas, methane. It is a far better greenhouse gas than carbon and is now found in the atmosphere at concentrations of more than 150% over pre-industrial levels.
When people put organic matter in the regular waste stream, these coffee grounds and sandwich crusts are acted upon by decomposing microorganisms, with methane being a common by-product. This is why garbage dumps must be equipped with release valves. Otherwise, they\'d literally explode from the pressure.
One way to avoid the bulk and threat of such waste is to keep your own compost pile. These are not difficult to keep, even if entire books can be written on the finer points. Nor do they need to smell bad. Many cities are now separately collecting organic wastes as part of municipal compost programs, many of which are then used as fertilizer for city and park lands.
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