Out of the Cocoon

I am sure that you will regularly receive unsolicited mail in your post box, encouraging you to take out loans, new credit cards, accident insurance, Chinese takeaways, Pizzas, Uncle Thom Cobley and all. Recently I received an unsolicited email that promised to 'restore the real you - As seen on NBC, CBS, CNN, and even Oprah! The health discovery that actually reverses aging while burning fat, without dieting or exercise!' What a promise! How seductive! Yet even if it would work, which it doesn't, is it what I need? Is it what any of us need?

We are wonderfully created and the aging process is one of the mysteries of our creation.  Yes, our joints may start to creek or swell and our stomachs may be less resilient about handling foods. But we are alive, and we are wonderfully made.  I remember someone saying to me, "When I was young I could tell my body what to do and it did it. Now that I am old my body tells me what I can't do and I do not like it."

I would like you all to feel that you belong to a body that tells you what you can do, and you like doing it.

But first, let us look more closely at this earth we are all part of. The first thing we notice is that fragility and vulnerability are built into the very beginning of creation.

The Golden Eagle with its majestic wingspan, started life in an egg whose shell is so fragile, a pebble dropped from a sparrow's beak could shatter it. The butterfly, before it achieved its fleetness of flight, nurtured its existence in a pupa whose static state makes it easy prey to a hungry bird.  And think of a baby, often so small that it can be held in the palm of a hand. Then you begin to see the real fragility and vulnerability of creation.

In the Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck clearly describes the vulnerability of children during their journey towards adulthood. Many events in a child's life would cut it short if it were not for the power of God's Grace.

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