replacing the period with a comma

Many years ago, when our dog Kasey was only a few months old, we lived in a parsonage near the church.  The yard was huge and Kasey generally stayed in the yard when we let her out, even though there was no fence.  One day, when I was working in the yard, I heard Kasey barking wildly.  She was standing in the front yard, looking down at something and barking as if to warn us that something was wrong and potentially very dangerous.  I went over to see what the cause of the commotion was and discovered that my dog was barking at mushrooms.  All she knew was that they weren't there the day before and now they were.  Something was out of place.  So she barked.

That event provided a great illustration for a sermon I preached a couple of weeks later - an illustration that people of that church still talk about 13 years later!  That sermon and illustration are another story for another time, however.  What's on my mind this morning is that a few days ago we put Kasey down.  And even in her death, she has continued to give me illustrations for the life of faith.

Most of us were able to be in the room with Kasey when they put her down.  It was good to be present with her, but more difficult than I imagined, quite honestly.  In the days following, of course, her death has become very real to us - though it all seemed a bit surreal at the time.  Gone are the joys of having a dog in the family (as are some of the frustrations, of course - but hey, it's all a part of life).  Whether it's the family pet, a loved one or our own lives, death is as final a thing as we experience on this earth.  It puts a pronounced period at the end of whatever sentence we happened to be writing at the time.

What strikes me about death, however, is what God has done with it in Christ Jesus.  In Christ God has taken the most final of human experiences and turned it on its head.  Death no longer has the final say in things.  It has lost its victory.  It has lost its sting.  By the grace of God, it does not have the last word.  Life does!  Just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, so are all who put our trust in him.  We participate with Christ in his death and resurrection, Scripture teaches.  We are raised to new life.  

What this means for us is that though we die, we will be raised to new life and will participate in the New Heavens and the New Earth God will re-create.  More than this, it means that new life, resurrected life, reaches back and is already at work transforming us.  To be raised to life with Christ is to be set free from the things that enslave us and to be empowered by God's Spirit to live new lives.  I wonder, how often do you or I step out into the promises and challenges of each new day intent on living life anew with the power of the Holy Spirit?  How often is that reality the primary contributing factor in the way we relate to others, make choices and engage our routines each day?

My father had a white dog named Snowball, when he was a kid.  That dog had injured itself and for some time had simply dragged its hind legs around.  My grandfather decided it was time to put the dog down and so one evening he covered the dog's snout with a cloth soaked in chloroform.  The dog succumbed and my grandfather went back in the house, intending to bury the dog the next morning.  This was not to be, however.  During the night, the period at the end of the sentence was erased.

The next morning, when my father went outside, there was Snowball, alive and (get this!) walking around on all fours!  I'm sure there is a rational explanation for what happened that day (or maybe not), but either way, it's a tremendous picture of what God in Christ has done with our spirits and lives even now - and what he will do one day in the most physical of ways.  What is final will be reversed.  What is finished will be restarted.  The period at the end of the sentence will be erased and replaced with a comma, or a dash, so that the Grand Story of God's grace and mercy can continue.  May it be true in your life today, and in mine.  Amen.