“This year, we’re going for the World’s Highest!” declared Grandson #1. “Or maybe just a Missouri State Record.”
He wanted the feat documented, too – exhorting his Gramps to be sure to “send it in” to the Global ‘Leaf Pile’ Accrediting Organization (or something like that).
All such grand plans notwithstanding, this ol’ Gramps was glad to have the young-uns’ help in rounding up the season’s first wave of fallen leaves … and I therefore willingly accommodated the related request – that the arboreal detritus, once collected, be gathered into a pile rather than consigned to yard waste bags.
Don’t know whether we actually set a record with the heap of leaves that our efforts produced, but its amplitude was notable, at the very least – nearly obscuring one of its co-creators … Grandson #2. (He’s standing there, proudly wearing his ‘frog t-shirt’, just behind the peak of the pile.)
Alas, the glory of our accomplishment was fleeting. Didn’t even make it to lunch-time, as it turned out … the temptation to “pile-dive” proving irresistible, even (and especially) to the Grandson who’d set such lofty expectations in the first place.
This rather pedestrian ending to our once-resplendent pile will come as a shock to absolutely no Gramps who’s ever gotten leaf-raking help from a Grand or two. Kids will be kids. And hard-wired they are to wallow in any nearby heap of fallen leaves.
This tendency of theirs got me thinking a bit about human nature, particularly as we approach the end of the year. What is it about us – this seemingly innate tendency to build … and then destroy?
Surely, the first half of this equation reveals something of the God-spark in us, does it not? There’s something of the divine in our spirit that compels us to lift our eyes, and push our talents to the limit.
At the same time, ‘demise’ is built into every human accomplishment. Not even the most magnificent edifice lasts forever – as Jesus teaches in this week’s gospel passage: “All that you see here – the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.” And the prophet Malachi echoes this sobering theme: “Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch.”
Surely, we would do well to heed the wisdom in such warnings.
We would do well, too, to wallow in the promises made (almost in the same breath) by our provident and loving God – promises that transcend and transform an otherwise disappointing world: “[F]or you who fear my name [says the Lord of hosts], there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” And: “[N]ot a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.”
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 