To Sprout Again

For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.
Job 14:7-9
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To Sprout Again
Many false religions proclaim the heretical idea of reincarnation, that once one dies, they come back as another person, animal, or whatnot, depending upon how you lived your previous life.  This of course is not at all what the Bible teaches.  Once we die, judgement occurs immediately.  There is no second chance to return to earth and try it again.  Yet we are born again in this life.  Those whom the Holy Spirit gives faith are made new.  We are dead stumps rotting away as Job describes.  But with the sweet scent coming from the Baptismal font our lives bud anew.  In the saving waters of Baptism, we are reborn now, here in this life, to live for Christ and one another.  We are given new life and the image of God which we lost in the fall, is partially restored.  An image which will be completely restored upon Christ’s return.  Here in these passages Job foreshadows the blessings of Holy Baptism which we can now take comfort in. We have sprouted again and continue to grow in our faith until the day in which God calls us home.  We return to those soothing waters of our Baptism daily, refreshed in God’s Spirit.