We had our weekly team meeting this morning. it was good to be together and wrestle through some of things that are on our plate as an organization. Each Tuesday meeting we begin with a short devotional sort of time. This morning we let James Autry’s poem “The Resurrection” center our conversation and prayer. It was timely since a couple of us are reading Eugene Peterson’s most recent book Practice Resurrection: A conversation on growing up in Christ (Eerdmans, 2010). Autry’s poem helped us get our heads and hearts around some of Peterson’s thoughts. So I thought I would share the poem…May it be a gift to you as you sit with it… “The Resurrection” by James A. Autry This story is about a little girl who died on Easter Sunday and about her father who could no longer whistle. Everyone knew at once, the family, the neighbors, that life would never be the same without the little girl, but it took a while for everyone to realize that life would never be the same without the father’s whistle. No one tried to talk him into it because they understood the whistle was somehow with the little girl, gone, it seemed, forever. Nobody knew what happened that day at the plant, or if anything did, but even before he arrived home a neighbor lady called to say how much it meant to hear the whistle. “Your father has started whistling again,” the mother told her son, who then carried the father’s tune in his heart until one Easter Sunday many years later and many miles away, in a sermon of resurrection, the son was able at last to tell this story, and to whistle. And the spirit of his father was released as a blessing to all who heard it. Questions for reflection & discussion • What stands out to you personally? • Who have been the “whistling” people in your story? the resurrection-people? • Are there places in your life where God is inviting you to “whistle” yet again?
