Subbed for the science teacher again. She is smart, though, and left a movie for me to show. Neither she nor I think I could handle molecular biology, or as the kids informed me they are exploring now, burning walnuts to measure the caloric output for heating one cc of water. 

 

The movie was about volcanoes. The seventh grade boys were riveted by the lava. The narrator said the underwater volcanoes are even now building up a new island in Hawaii. It will be ten centuries before anyone can buy ocean front property, but still. 

 

The movie showed the eruption on Mount St. Helens, which happened a month before John and I got married in 1980. We were moving to Lake Helen after the wedding, which had my mother in a tizzy. As it turns out, Lake Helen, Florida is a safe distance from Mount St. Helens in Washington. 

 

The blast spewed a cubit mile of debris into the air, downed millions of trees in three minutes, and was 1,600 times the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Life was obliterated for miles. But the next summer, scientists found deer mice scampering around on the charred ground. It was impossible for them to have walked in, so it seemed plausible that they had survived the blast. Gophers too, showed up, who apparently had escaped into deep holes in the ground. Volcanologists had a flurry of questions but the mammals refused to comment. Still they did fertilize new growth with seeds hidden in their burrows.

 

Ten years later, the mountain had lupines, alders, and elk. The remnants had sprouted new life. Our marriage too, ten years later had produced five children.

 

Relationships have been known to explode. Bankruptcy, adultery, death can flatten a marriage that a short time ago was thriving. But God is even more resourceful than gophers. He can revitalize a heart with nothing more than a few seeds. It does not happen on the time table most of us are obsessed with, but some miracles are worth the wait. 

 

 

Photo by Joy Feerrar

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