Full Circle

Today we visited Eisleben, an interesting and notable town because it is where Martin Luther was born and died, but he never lived there.  This photo is of a statue in his honor in the town square, with the spire of the church where he was baptized on his first full day of his life.  It is also the church where he preached his last few sermons and a few steps from the home where he died.

Luther died of heart failure.  He clearly had been having a series of heart attacks on his trip to Eisleben.  Because of his failing health over the course of many years, Luther regularly talked about death.  In the days prior to his death he spoke and wrote about the irony of him possibly dying in the town of his birth – especially because he had never lived there.

Life does have a way of coming full-circle.  When we look closely, each of us can see how in our own lives.  We also can see it in the lives of others.  Luther certainly saw this.  Strange how much had come full-circle for him.   A man so in touch with his own sinfulness, but seen as a role model of faithfulness.  A man so uplifted as a single-handed revolutionary, but one who relied on so many in order to effect change.  A man so angry with God early in his life, but so trusting of God’s grace as he approached death.  A man who set out to change nothing other than his heart ended up changing the entire world.

Can you see what has come full-circle for you?  Can you identify some issues which would benefit from work turning them around?  Do you trust that God is with you – that God has been from the very beginning and will be until the end?  Jesus has some things to say about that too… the living, dying and rising stuff.  It is time to think and pray about coming full-circle.