Life After Death, A Compost Story
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:19
I love a good walk in the woods. In autumn especially, I find the ground covered in brown leaves that crunch quietly under my step. Once plump and vibrant on the branches, the leaves have detached and fallen.
The leaves have died.
When I dig a little under the top blanket of leaves, I find older layers that have decomposed into a damp, crumbly humus.
They are very dead.
Outside of the woods, sometimes I look around at my world and it feels like everything is decaying. Especially if I watch the news too much. Death and destruction are everywhere. It’s a dumpster fire out there. Sometimes the dumpster fire is inside my home. Sometimes it’s inside my head. How can I respond? Despair or rage or panic – pick a card.
How does God guide me through this valley of the shadow of death?
Let me go back to the forest floor. Look! I can see thin, white threads of living mycelium (fungus fingers!). I spot a worm. Beyond what I can see, there are a billion microbes living their best lives in a teaspoon of that stuff. I notice green sprouts popping up out of the decomposing material. Seeds have scattered from a dead flower, and they are coming to life in the soil. The dead and decomposing material nourishes them so they can germinate and grow.
Death and re-birth are both fully present in the soil.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. (Isaiah 43:19 ) This is a verse from the the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. It was a message to a people who had turned away from God and disconnected from their life source. It was a time of decay. In the middle of that place of desolation, God called His people to wake up and look around. He is making something new come alive.
When it seems like restoration is impossible, God is bringing something beautiful to life.
For Christians, Jesus’ death and resurrection are the cornerstones of our faith. Jesus, whom Paul describes in Colossians as the image of the invisible God, was born, lived, and died. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus came back to life again three days after his death. Christian theology holds that, by Jesus’ death and resurrection, the destructive power of sin and death are utterly destroyed. Now, God is using the decomposing material as the medium to redeem, restore, reconcile, and recreate.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” John 11:25
In the compost on the forest floor, I can see a small glimpse of God’s grace and His perfect plan, which is completed in Jesus and is being carried out in us. Death is not the end. He is making something new.
Jeff Chu, writer and minister, gives a beautiful message on The Theology of Compost:
A robust theology of the compost reminds us that death and the things of death, our sin, our suffering, the ways we hurt each other, the ways we harm ourselves— These things are never the end of God’s story.
A robust theology of the compost reminds us that we are still in the process of becoming, and God has written redemption into the story of creation itself.
A robust theology of the compost reminds us that God has empowered us, lowly worms, to turn what is ugly and festering and dying into what is lovely and beautiful and life-giving.
A robust theology of the compost testifies to the fact that we can’t do this alone, but we need others, because a single worm can’t do very much but in community they have such tremendous power.
A robust theology of the compost testifies that we who have been told by society that we are worthless can act in the confidence of the knowledge that we are worthy.
And a robust theology of the compost testifies that God urges those of us who have been shamed not to shame, but instead to love. Because in our acts of love, we participate in preparing the soil in which God’s reign of love and justice can take root.
For me, the story of compost shows that God is constantly bringing new life out of death. He does it with every falling leaf that becomes food for a new plant to grow, and with every plant or animal whose death enables me to nourish my body. He does it so regularly that I consider it mundane.
When I am in a season where it seems like death and despair have the upper hand, faith is believing that even then – especially then – God is bringing something beautiful to life. God is making dead things come alive all around me, and in me, all the time. Do I perceive it?
An invitation to consider
- Ask God for eyes to see and a heart to receive what He has for you today.
- If you are in a season of death and grief, may God hold you gently through the process.
- In His good time, may He reveal to you new life that was emerging all the while.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.