The Phoenix and the Other Side of the Ashes

By Bobby Neal Winters

A Phoenix is reborn out of its own ashes.

I’ve been thinking about this image, this symbol, as our own civilization goes to ashes. I’ve also been thinking about what it means for the world to come to an end.  What is the End of the World?

The world ended twice every Sunday for a while when I was growing up.  The Last Trump was going to blow (hmmm); Jesus would Rapture his people to heaven; there would be seven years of Tribulation; then Jesus would come and establish God’s Kingdom.

And I believed.  I was terrified, in fact.  What if the Trump sounded and I was left behind to go through The Tribulation alone?

I remember one occasion when I was by myself, and I heard something like a trumpet sound multiple times--it could’ve been seven times.  I was all alone. Alone, out in the country. I was sure my whole family had been raptured away.

Turns out, I hadn’t actually heard a trumpet.  It was a bull talking to his harem.  If you say that a bull doesn’t sound like a trumpet, well...I’d never actually heard a trumpet before.  Anyway, the family got back from buying groceries...or wherever...and my heart started beating again.

Let’s return to the question stated near the beginning of the article: What is the End of the World?

In recent history, Science has come in with certain end of the world scenarios.  The Earth could be hit by a planet-killing asteroid.  It would pierce the atmosphere; send up a plume of ash; bring on an ice age. There would be starvation and war.  Nations would fight for an increasingly limited number of resources until those nations were no longer able to fight.  They would themselves dissolve leaving their citizens as roving packs of animals, fighting for the last crumbs of food.

Rapture before The Tribulation doesn’t look so bad now, does it?

If it's not an asteroid, it could be a Supervolcano. 

Or the CO2 in the atmosphere tips us into a runaway greenhouse effect.

I think the Biblical idea of the End of the World is less final, more hopeful than any of the scientific ones. 

The Biblical idea is tied up with a new beginning.

While it’s not a Biblical image, the Phoenix is an excellent metaphor. Let’s compare it to the biblical story of the Flood. In that story, the world ended; they took just what they needed to start over; then they began again.  God gave them a new covenant.  

The survivors brought a new way of doing things to the new world.

So--even though it was water that destroyed things--the Old World turned to ashes and the New World was born from within those ashes.

Right now--even as the world comes apart--the seeds of the new world are already there. 

Someone is asking, Okay, Bud, what are they?  What are the seeds of the future?

The simple thing to say would be that the seeds are our children.  People would nod and smile; they would take the cliche; they would put down the paper and go on with the rest of the day.

But it’s not that simple.  

Our world is made of people but that’s just a part of it.  It’s the connections between people.  We are connected to each other; we are connected to our families.

We are connected to the past, bringing traditions from our parents, but we are guardians of the world for our children.

Let me shift metaphors again.  We are a tapestry.  We are woven from threads that go not only around the planet, but through time--into the future and into the past.

Those who survive will be the children of those who taught them best how to survive, how to live, how to flourish.

Look around you now.  You can probably see them even if you can’t recognize them.

Oops.  I hear something blowing. See you on the other side of the ashes.

Bobby Winters, a native of Harden City, Oklahoma, blogs at redneckmath.blogspot.com and okieinexile.blogspot.com. He invites you to “like” the National Association of Lawn Mowers on Facebook. Search for him by name on YouTube.