My six-year-old son has taught me much about life and death.
A couple of weeks ago, I was making supper while talking with Nathaniel about life cycles. To be honest, I thought we were talking about honeybees. Then he effortlessly captured my imagination with these words: “That’s our life cycle.”
Suddenly, I realized I hadn’t been listening very well. I had a mental image of a classroom poster depicting the progression from egg to larva to pupa to fully grown insect. The arrows continue in an endless circle, because new life comes with every new egg laid.
What would our life cycle look like if it were on a poster? We humans are born, we grow up into adults, we birth more humans, and eventually we die. But is that all? Not according to my son!
When he was just shy of four, he spoke an amazingly simple prayer. He asked Jesus — the only person who has ever been fully God and fully human — to be his Saviour, to forgive him of the sins he already knew were there, and to live in his heart. We’ve been touched by death several times in the past few years, and each time I see my son draw nearer to God. Just as he knows that a caterpillar will emerge from its chrysalis as a newly-made butterfly, he knows that someday, he too will emerge from death with a new body in his Maker’s presence.
One of the Easter traditions I keep is the writing of poetry. I think of it as making something new for the God who makes all things new. This year I dedicated my poem to my son, from whom I continue to learn so much.
Dear seed, I know what this looks like.
I'm burying you in the dark earth,
There to stay, but it’s not the end;
From your grave will come a new birth.
You, who were one, will be many
Seeds adorning the sunflower’s face.
You, who were so small in the fall,
Will rise tall-- what abundant grace!
Dear caterpillar, do you grieve
To stiffen in your small coffin?
Your lumbering, stumbling life ends,
But take joy! Your hardness will soften
And our Maker will remake you
‘Til you rise to the heavens’ rays,
Transformation in your veins,
And wearing a garment of praise.
Dear friend, we feel the pain of this world
When it seems like death is winning.
Do we believe that our life is like a seed,
The end only the beginning?
Our life cycle is Jesus’ own:
More certain than the spring’s rebirth
Is the resurrection of these bones
In the new heavens and new earth.
Sonja Sweet is a homeschooling mom of three. She inherited her love for writing from her dad, Rob Weatherby.
