ACROSS THE PASTOR’S DESK

The Rev. Dennis Schmidt, Hartland and Manchester Lutheran Churches

We had a wonderful Lutheran Pioneer campout over this past weekend, as 19 children and four of us adults camped out overnight and spent the next day swimming, canoeing and playing games. Setting up camp is always a “controlled chaos” type of situation. Yet I am always amazed that youth from ages 6 through 15 are able to unpack a tent, analyze the parts and get it assembled (often by trial and error) within perhaps 30 minutes.

As we were swimming in the campground pool on Saturday I had one of those unique “wonder” moments. As I swam and splashed with the kids, I suddenly noticed a very small sweat bee floating on the water and going down for the last time. It was thrown completely out of control by the thrashing of the many swimmers. Within a moment I had to make a decision. Would I go on about my fun or take a few minutes to try to rescue a helpless creature in trouble.

I put my hand under it and lifted the insect up — not knowing if it was still alive or not. After perhaps 30 seconds I saw it start to move. It was indeed still alive! I made my way to the side of the pool and for perhaps five minutes watched as it sat on the tip of my finger and recovered from its near-fatal ordeal.

Drying out in the sun, it tried its wings out several times, but found them not yet up to flight.

As I watched this tiny insect — perhaps half an inch long — the wonder of what I was looking at began to fill me. This tiny creature — within its minute body — had a marvelous brain, a nervous system, digestive system, reproductive system, circulatory system, the ability to hear, see, taste, touch, smell and a great deal more. Plus it had something I do not have — the ability to fly. But perhaps even more important — it still had life.

With the multitude of things we human beings have achieved, we still cannot produce life from scratch. Oh sure, we can take sperm and an egg, bring them together through artificial insemination and produce a human baby or a baby animal. But we are starting with the complex elements of life already there for us. We are able to somewhat manipulate through genetics various traits and characteristics — in humans, animals or plants. Yet we are not able to take inanimate parts and come up with a living organism.

Life has to come from a “living” source. The book of Genesis in the Bible tells us what this source of life is. “God said, ‘Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it.’” “So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems … and every winged bird … God made the wild animals … the livestock … and all the creatures that move along the ground … the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being.”

Life — all life on our planet — came from our “living” God — God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This life is passed on from parent to child or from seeds growing to maturity and producing other seeds containing the spark of life. Without that progression, there is only a dead, inanimate object. It can look so similar to the living one, but it is not “alive.”

In a similar way, spiritual life comes only from God. An unbeliever may look oh so similar to a Christian believer, but they are not “spiritually alive.” They are “Dead in their trespasses and sins.” Scripture says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:36) This belief and resulting spiritual life comes only from God through His Word and sacraments (holy acts). “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” As one Christian speaks the truth of Jesus Christ as savior to someone who does not believe, God through this message passes “spiritual life” to another person.

Jesus said, “Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” Only those who have been made spiritually alive by God giving them a living faith in Jesus Christ as their full savior from sin, will be saved and be in heaven.

So you see, all life — physical and spiritual — must come from God. With physical life we are alive, just as that small bee was on my finger. Without it, we are dead. With spiritual life we are alive. Without it, we are spiritually dead — not connected to God — and will be in hell in terror forever.

Life — it’s so very important for us here, and even more important for us for eternity.

But, what about the bee? I went to the pool fence, tossed with my finger, and the bee flew joyfully off into the rest of its life adventure.