Are We Being Buried or Being Planted?
Grief | Hope | Finding Eden
Some days, I feel like I’m blooming, and other days, I feel buried. I find it interesting that both happen in the dark. Both involve being covered, pressed down, and unseen. If I was going to personify the seed, it is propbly wondering what in in the world is going on? Why is it so dark? Is this the end? What is going to happen? I believe that this is also a thought identifiable in us as well.
In seasons of grief, transition, or loss, we often can’t tell which one we’re living through. Are we being buried or are we being planted? Both a burial and planting can feel like endings, but only one is final here on Earth. The other is the beginning of something new.
The thing about seeds is that a seed doesn’t grow unless it splits open. That breaking can feel like devastation. I know. I’ve been there. However, it is in the BREAKING of the seed that allows something new to take root. Then it has to endure harsh circumstances of water being poured over it, over and over again. In the soil of our own lives, the seed of pain is planted. New roots grow. The roots stretch down into something greater than ourselves that we didn’t even know existed. And in time, often much, much longer than we would like, something begins to grow.
When we’re on a journey of sorrow or something very challenging, it’s hard to believe anything good could come from it. Anything whatsoever. But, I do with my whole heart believe that our Creator does some of his deepest work in the hidden places.
It’s messy. It’s unseen. It is scary. It is holy. It is beautiful.
I LOVE this song by Brandon Lake and Elevation Worship called Graves Into Gardens. It is these lyrics that stick out:
“You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways, you're the only one who can.”
Eventually, that fragile shoot from the broken seed breaks through the soil as it reaches for the sun. I like to imagine that the seed is excited because it has been in the dark for a very long time. Perhaps it is wondering what it is going to be…a tree? An Apple? A lilac bush? In us, the seed of hope breaks through the surface, reaching for the light, and maybe you can feel it, but you, too, are wondering what you will become. What was a death in our lives, from the loss of a loved one, may have felt like death for us as well, but now, over time, time which cannot be rushed, a new becoming breaks through. What seemed like an ending becomes a transformation.
Being planted is still hard. It still hurts. But it holds the promise of purpose. Still, throughout life, because grief never goes away, even years down the road, some days it will feel like you are blooming. Other days, buried. Life doesn’t move in a straight line, it ebbs and flows. It loops, stalls, crawls, and leaps. Remember this, we are not abandoned in the dark. We are held. We are becoming.
You were not buried. You were planted.
Well written Kimberly. Good job sharing.
Beautiful.