By Rev Douglas Brauner

We are already alive in Christ.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.
John 5:24 New Living Translation

Many of us grew up with Kermit the Frog singing the words, “It’s not easy bein’ green.” He wishes he were a different color, that he would not blend in with everything else that is green, but finally he accepts that he’s green and that he’s happy to stay green.

As I look at this ornamental grass I realize that being green is the least of its problems. Staying green is much more challenging. It will not be long and all of these green blades will turn brown. The plant cannot resist the inevitable. It will die…

…and it will live.

As I gain more aches and pains, as my body takes longer to recover, as my memory isn’t as sharp as it was when the future was stronger than the past, I’m coming to realize that it’s not that easy staying green. It’s not that I hear death knocking at my door, but like this grass there are stragglers that have turned brown.

This realization of death is not cornered by those who are in the twilight of life. After my appendix ruptured in 1982, when I was twenty-five, I realized that death is not a respecter of age. All of us have brown blades of grass even if most are still predominantly green.

Jesus reminds us that though we will die, we have “ALREADY passed from death into life.” Through Jesus’ dying (roots and all), through his resurrection (roots and all), we have faith that in our dying we are already alive, being renewed by his mercy every day.

It is God’s mercy for us that keeps us green even when we see brown.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado