All Things Beautiful #3 – Ken Williams

“Life Finds a Way; Life is the Way”

In one scene from the movie Jurassic Park, Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician specializing in chaos theory, was surprised to learn scientists were cloning dinosaurs from blood DNA preserved in fossilized mosquitos. He warned that they had opened the door to enormous power with uncertain consequences. He told the cloners that they were naïve if they thought they could control this extinct animal population, extinct for good reasons. They shared that they were reproducing females alone, controlling their reproduction. Dr. Malcolm’s deep respect for life’s power, reasoned that humans cannot control life saying, “life finds a way”, and his prediction came true in terrifying force!

I considered Dr. Malcolm’s comment as I walked from our townhouse to our community clubhouse. It is late winter but in upstate New York it’s still cold. The breeze and windchill penetrated my layers of clothing. It was a typical gloomy day, and my mood inspired a fantasy that turned the barren, leafless, deciduous trees, silhouetted against the grey sky, into giant skeletons towering above me. I had the feeling I was walking through a cemetery. The evergreen trees stood as monuments, perhaps like crosses standing guard next to graves. The breeze cutting through the evergreen branches whispered, “life finds a way.”

Carol, the clubhouse receptionist, asked, “Did you eat your apple?” She keeps track of residents’ well-being. I threw my apple core in the trash can. Grateful to be out of the cold into warmth I started walking the treadmill. My hematologist, Dr. Zent, assures me this will do as much good as eating an apple a day. Walking on the elevated ramp at a decent speed warmed me as life giving oxygen flowed in my circulating blood. Exercising is tiring but heavy breathing is beneficial and relieves fatigue. I considered Dr. Malcolm’s words, and realized an apple a day, along with a cube of 72% dark chocolate, and the treadmill help to make life worth living but won’t prolong the inevitable death. At this point I kept one of my New Year’s resolutions and focused on Jesus’ presence. I can’t control life but remembered the Way, the Truth, and the Life does. I feel his presence.

I felt better as I left the fitness room and remembered that this is late winter; spring is approaching and upstate New York flora and fauna are only hibernating. Walking home I stopped to consider the giant skeletons mingled with giant evergreen crosses in this cemetery of winter’s domain. I stared at a giant maple tree, with a trunk of 19 feet in circumference. Then it occurred to me that inside this giant skeleton is life. The tree is numbed in deep sleep. Life’s presence and hope’s warmth washed through me. Life asked, “Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel 37:3b. Yes!! Beautiful!!

Every spring we consider God’s selfless, self-giving, self-denying, self-emptying being, heart of love (Brad Jersak’s “A More Christlike God”), recalling this “dead man walking” into Jerusalem a week before his Passion, with death on a cross. We consider the reality of his bloodless body, lying in his stone-cold tomb. His disciples grieved, hopeless, on the day between the Cross and Easter morning. Early Sunday morning, Jesus walked out of the tomb. When he awakened the startled cosmos, gasped, “What…what was that!?” Life is the Way and is glorified! Alive! Life found a Way and is the Way.

I thank God for our northern hemisphere four seasons. They help me see Life’s beautiful presence and how he makes us beautiful. Like the giant maple tree skeleton, we have life in us that will breathe life into our dried bones or ashes, glorified. Colossians 3:1-4

Stay tuned for blog #4 of “All Things Beautiful.”

Ken and Nancy Williams served for some 25 years in pastoral ministry, and then almost another 20 years serving and mentoring other pastors.  With the heart of a pastor Ken continues to write and blog from upstate New York where he and Nancy live close to their grandchildren.