I was in junior high when the phone rang. This was back in the days of landlines, when phones were still attached to walls, and you didn’t screen your calls. When I picked up, a nurse from the nursing home where my great-grandmother lived was on the other end. She asked for my mom. I told her she wasn’t home.
There was a pause.
Then she asked if I could take a message. I said yes.
She replied, “Tell your mom that Byrd has expired.” I always wondered if that nurse felt strange leaving that message with me. Byrd was my mom's grandma who I always remembered as sweet and kind.
That day she was expired.
I remember standing there a little confused. That was the word they used for milk or coupons. I wondered if I had misunderstood the message. That was a word used for something that had passed its usefulness. And it felt strange to think of a family member that way.
In John 12, some Greeks come looking for Jesus. And Jesus responds in a way that feels just as strange: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
In other words, something has to expire. Something has to be released, surrendered, let go. Jesus isn’t talking about dairy products or due dates. He’s talking about us. About the parts of us we cling to.
The life we try to hold onto too tightly… is the very life that keeps us from becoming. But the life we let fall into the ground, well, that’s the life God multiplies. That's what sounds strange to us. Expiration isn’t the end for us. In this life or the next, it’s always the beginning of something more.
Stay blessed...john
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