Resurrection living

It was great theology, even if she didn't know it. "Creation takes a lot longer than destruction," said the ranger in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park. She was talking about nature — about glaciers and what happens when all the ice recedes and new life begins to take root on the rock that's left. But it sounded like theology to me.

Anyone who's been through a major transition will attest to the accuracy of the park ranger's statement. In the midst of transition most of us are hard-pressed to see God's creative energies at work, much less God's invitation to be co-creators of the world God desires.

The Israelites wandering through the deserts between Egypt and Canaan found the creative process of leaving behind their identity as slaves and learning to become the people of God enormously frustrating. I suspect Jesus also knew the challenges of creation as he entered the wilderness for 40 days and, again, as he entered Jerusalem for the final week of his life. His death took just a few short days, but his resurrection began a creative process that we're still trying to live into thousands of years later. Like the park ranger said, destruction's easy. Creation is the tough part.

It's that creation work that we're about in this Easter season.