Everything Has a Season

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, which ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard that went down to the skirts of his garments.” – Psalm 133: 1, 2  

My “baby”brother/brethren died in March.  He was seven years younger than me. We were planning my 70th birthday party when last we talked.  I cried through the entire MBAA final because he wasn’t there to see North Carolina win and to text with me. He was the only person who knew all but seven years of my well-worn stories.  He taught me how to shag.  We often sang Margaritaville together.   There is a new loneliness I will feel the rest of my days.

Still, I don’t want to intrude on creation’s vastness and seasonality to rage at death.  “Death is the mother of beauty,” as the poet said.  Jesse is irreplaceable and he is gone.  The oil never got to run down his beard onto the ground – and also we dwelled long together in unity.

The 2015 book, Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild Things  chronicles what is called de-extinction science, which tells us that despite record levels of species extinctions, we also know how to bring some extinct species back.  I’m not sure I want to do that.

We can love things and we can lose them. Everything has a season.   Death is part of life, not NOT a part of life.  We can’t stop time or undo what we have done. We are unified with life, not extinct, in our living and our dying.

Prayer

Let the oil join the tears of unity and let it flow and flow. 

ddauthordonnaschaper.jpgAbout the Author
Donna Schaper is Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her most recent book is I Heart Frances: Letters to the Pope from an Unlikely Admirer.