So too, is the TIME in our life for blooms. The winter is over. The roots are digging down deep into the ground, reaching for nutrients in the soil. Fresh rain spills out and freshens the ground and the tips of the branches on the Lilac shrubs begin to flourish out, little nubbings at first, with tiny sproutlings of leaves.
During the winter months the branches of the Lilac went into dormancy - a good sleep for the winter.
We too need sleep times. And then the warmth of spring sun and Spring rains brings on the new awakening of the Lilac.
Paul, in the book of II Corinthians, states "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all Comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. And whether we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or whether we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you also be of the consolation. [II Cor 1.2 - 7]
Further, Paul goes on to say in chapter 2 of II Corinthians, "Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ, and makes manifest [known] the savor [fragrance] of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are to God a sweet fragrance of Christ in those that are saved, and in those that perish. To the one [those that are perishing] we are the fragrance of death unto death, and to the other [those that are saved] the fragrance of life unto life." [II Corinthians 2.14 - 17
May I explain to you what I think this portion of scripture is saying?
In my mind's eye, Paul here is talking about the FRAGRANCE, THE SAVOR, THE AROMA
OF SOMETHING THAT SPEAKS LIFE TO ONE, AND DEATH TO ANOTHER. It can be, I think, much like the Flowers that we decorate out homes and businesses with. We cannot get enough of lovely flowers with fragrant smells lightening up our lives. Also, another thing I liken this to, is the aroma and sweet smells of something cooking on the stove in our home kitchen or roasting in the oven. The smell of a cooking turkey or a ham in the oven can also be very tantilizing.
However, the same flowers that we love so well in our homes and in our yards can be a signal of difficulty for others. Example? At a funeral, the FLOWERS speak of the sorrow and sympathy people express at the loss of their loved one. Yet it is a strange thing. The flower bouquets with their aroma can be speaking to you and I of the joy awaiting us in Heaven. Life can be dark and dreary, but with the joy of knowing our Life will continue with the promise "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord" we think of the fragrance and aroma from Lilacs, from flowers as bespeaking the beauty of Life Eternal that awaits the Believer.
For the one who is not a Believer, and who is one of the "walking dead" spiritually the flowers at a funeral is only a fragrance of death and it brings no comfort to that person. When there is no hope after life, the flowers can bring only a fragrance of "death unto death" .
The scripture goes on to tell us in II Corinthians 5.1- 8 this grand and glorious statement:
We know that if our earthly house of our tabernacle
[our body] were dissolved, we have a building of God,
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed
with our house which is from heaven.
If so be [if this happens] being clothed, we shall not be
found naked [unclothed].
For in that we are in this tabernacle [body] do groan,
being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of
life. Now He that has wrought us for the very same
thing is God, who also has given to us the ernest [the
seal, the down-payment] of the Spirit.
Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, while
we are at home in the body, we are absent from the
Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord."
II Cor 5.1 - 8
HAPPY RESURRECTION ! SUNDAY !
