Rising Again

Scarlet Tanager

Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. ~ Acts 9:40

The mist escalated to full on rain, making me grateful that I had brought my umbrella with me on my birding trip. I don’t know if it was the location, or maybe the rain, but that was when I saw the greatest concentration of birds that day. Granted, it was only four species, still, it was more than I had seen on the walk so far. The star of the show was the brilliant male Scarlet Tanager. He was easy to pick out as he flitted from one low perch to another, yet, there always seemed to be something in the way of the perfect view, a tree trunk or branch seemed to always stand between him and me. It’s not like he couldn’t have been doing that on purpose, of course, considering that my umbrella was nearly as bright and red as he was. Standing there in the rain, attempting to see a single bird, I began to question the purpose of this silly pursuit. I thought to myself, “well, these birds aren’t going to find themselves.”

The double meaning hit me right away. Chasing birds in order to discover them was my intention, not theirs. As far as I know, they have no interest in accumulating experiences in a list. But how do I know that they are not intent on self-discovery? We can’t know if self-awareness is limited to humans, though our more-than-human kin appear more secure in their understanding of their place in the world, so maybe they don’t require the soul searching that we do.

Chasing after beings that hide or take flight to avoid detection seems an apt metaphor for the work of self-discovery. How often is is that it is the difficult parts of the journey are the best teachers? We can learn well from losses, even as we whine, “oh goodie, another life lesson!” What if we saw each of those trials, no matter how tragic or trivial, as an opportunity for a little resurrection? If we understand the road to self awareness as the spiritual journey that it is, we should walk by the faith that losses, while inevitable, are not the end. If we are to be a resurrection people then we should be able to see that not only has the grave been conquered, but every little death is defeated by hope. Tabitha rose from death to continue living her life. One day she stopped living, but like her first death, she rose again, if only by inspiring us today with the tenacity and faith we need to find ourselves.

Prayer: Resurrected and Resurrecting One, entice us to follow the path where we rise again and again. Amen.