Nature shows us the Resurrection

As part of my own personal devotions, I use A Year with the Church Fathers by Mike Aquilina (also a free Android App–Google FTW!). In it, he offers a little introductory summary, followed by some words by a church father, and then ends with a question to meditate upon and a concluding prayer.

This one struck me yesterday, as doubt in the Resurrection is something I struggle with a lot. Thank God we live and grow and struggle in such a long, continual stream of godly men and women having walked before us. We stand on the shoulders of giants, to be sure. I hope this encourages you as well.

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St. Clement of Rome tells us that belief in the resurrection should come naturally. God has given us signs everywhere: in the day and night, in the way seeds disappear and grow into fruitful plants. We should contemplate the constant resurrection of the natural world and learn from its example.

Think, dear friends, how the Lord continually proves to us that there will be a resurrection to come, of which he made the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising him from the dead. Contemplate the resurrection that is always going on. Day and night declare the resurrection to us. The night sinks to sleep, and the day rises; the day departs, and the night comes on. Look at the crops, how the grain is sown: the sower goes out and throws it on the ground, and the scattered seed, dry and bare when it fell on the ground, is gradually dissolved. Then out of its disintegration the mighty power of the Lord’s providence raises it up again, and from one seed come many bearing fruit.

—St. Clement (1st century AD), in his first letter to the Corinthians

MEDITATING IN GOD’S PRESENCE

If we are like seeds destined to grow into plants, what does that tell us about our life with God after we die?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, you are the only source of growth and abundance. You help us plant our crops, and they yield their produce by your power. Lead me to share forever in the even greater gifts of heaven that are signified by the fruits of the earth.

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