“Use it or lose it.” is a Law of Nature. “Whatever is nurtured, grows.” is a corollary to that law. Nurture a seed and it grows into a tree and bears fruits. Nurture plants and they grow flowers. Nurture animals or pets and they multiply. Nurture love and love grows. Nurture beauty and beauty increases. Nurture grudges and they grow and fester. Nurture hatred and it grows and bear fruits – anger, violence, revenge. There is no escaping these Laws of Nature.
While there is no escaping these Laws, there is a parallel set of principles that trumps the workings of the Laws of Nature. The Laws of Grace, in a paradoxical way, allows us to rise above the Laws of Nature. We value and try to preserve life. Yet, paradoxically and with Grace, it is in losing one’s life that one is able to save it. We try to nurture our reputation to increase our fame. Yet, paradoxically and with Grace, it is in being humble and shunning away from attention that we gain our stature before others. We often try to be a big person by doing great things. Yet, paradoxically and with Grace, it is in being the least and the last that we are able to make a real and substantial contribution.
The Lord is the Creator of Light and Life. Yet, he often speaks to us in the silence and in the darkness and emptiness. God is the Lord of power and might. Yet, He often shows His power and might through the poor, the weak and the outcasts. He is the King of glory and majesty. Yet, He chose as a man to be born in a manger and to die on the cross as a condemned criminal.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
John 3:16-21