Rev. Kit Billings
We are now heading into the beautiful season of Autumn, which gives us a royal blast of vibrant decoration of amazing and diverse colors upon our trees. Autumn symbolizes the transition from one season of life into another, representing the idea of transformation and renewal. In Swedenborgian thought, this could be seen as a reflection of the ongoing process of spiritual growth and regeneration for us personally. The diversity of colors in Autumn can symbolize the variety of spiritual experiences and insights we go through on our spiritual journey. Each lovely color may represent for us a reminder that we need to focus upon the spiritual and eternal elements of life rather than the fleeting material world, which dies and falls away. As we do this, our physical bodies grow older, while our spiritual bodies grow young.
Mark Twain is known to have said, “Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” I appreciate his thought here, and yet my question for him would be, which level or degree of yourself would you like to grow younger—your physical shell we call our body, or your spiritual being that lasts forever?
Our society and culture are much more driven by the ongoing search for the fountain of youth. Endless T.V. adds bombard us with this or that product that will seemingly shave ten years of wrinkles off of our lives. Youthfulness is much more highly praised than being elderly, and wise. But, perhaps the desire for eternal youth in us stems from an inner sense or feeling that this is what Heaven is like. Our theology tells us:
“Our inner self or our spirit does not know what old age is. Rather, as the body or the outward self grows old, we pass into newness of life. As we age our spirit is made more perfect, at the same time as our physical powers diminish. This is truer still in the next life, for the Lord is constantly leading those in Heaven into a more perfect life, and at length into the bloom of youth, including those people who have died at a ripe old age.” (Emanuel Swedenborg, Secrets of Heaven 4676) (1)
We can follow this up by recalling another teaching from Heaven and Hell 414, which says, “People in Heaven are continually advancing towards the springtime of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live…. In a word, to grow old in Heaven is to grow young.”
With all of this said, the wisdom of the Lord’s New Christianity does not end here, not by a long-shot! It goes on further to say that in addition to us all being on a lifelong journey of spiritual growing, it is also important to be aware that we all are also destined to go through a number of stages of spiritual development as well. These various ages or stages of spiritual development, which everyone must pass through, are all a part of the Lord’s process for perfecting us. Swedenborg has this helpful piece of knowledge to add, which is, “Human life, from infancy to old age, is nothing else than a progression from the world to Heaven; and the last age, which is death, is the transition itself.” (Secrets of Heaven 3016) One might simplistically think that it would all be so much easier and better for us to blink into existence as older and very wise human beings, without all of the mess and fuss of growing up from infancy into adulthood.
I guess it would be a whole lot easier if that’s how things worked, but now at the age of fifty-six, I can more clearly see the wisdom with how life works. The core truth is that much of what we are and what makes us a better human being comes out of our challenging years in childhood and teenagehood. Going through it all is part of what gives us some of the best parts of us. In infancy, for example, we learned how to trust and to enjoy many innocent states of being. We felt and internalized even more of what it feels like to really be deeply bonded with another human being—most notably our mothers, and also our fathers (or father-like figures), and gradually more people as our circle of experience widened. All of those special moments of our infancy become vital parts of our character that many people would not allow themselves to accept if we began life as a know-it-all teenager or young adult.
We might think it would be better for us if our physical bodies never declined. But, the fact of the matter is that we gain a lot of wisdom when we slowly give up our youthful self-sufficiency. During these many years of physical decline, as well as the suffering we go through, allows us to gain much humility and innocense. While this innocense of older age is a lot like the innocense of infancy, in reality it has developed into an innocense of wisdom. Our theology adds this insight, “We are created so that when we grow old and become like a little child, the innocence of wisdom joins itself with the innocence of ignorance which we had in infancy, and so we pass into the other life as a true infant [indeed].” (Secrets of Heaven 5608)
Old age can seem to be only a time of loss and debility, for indeed King David thought so. He prayed thus in Psalm 71:5-6,9 these poignant words: “You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth. You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb…. Do not cast me off in the time of old age. Do not forsake me when my strength fails.” For all who sometimes have such concerns the Lord responds to our fears and woes, as we read this morning in Isaiah 46: “[All] who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (emphasis mine). This reminds me that as hard and as painful as our physical life journey can be, still, woven in and throughout our lives are God’s overarching purposes for life. (2)
We can measure our stages of spiritual growth in two helpful ways. One is by learning what the inner or symbolic meaning is of the great, ancient myth in Genesis 1, which we call God’s “Creation Story.” It gives us a very helpful stage-progression from the innocense of ignorance (when the world was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep), into gaining much knowledge as children and teens, which leads into a crisis of meaning in life. From our youth or beyond it we then can have our own, personal spiritual awakening imaged in Day 4 that reads: “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:14-15)
We all need to experience at some point in childhood, youth or adulthood that first major spiritual awakening, symbolized by the creation of the Sun and the Moon in Genesis. We might call this our very own “spiritual birthday,” if you will—the time when we discovered for ourselves that the Lord God is totally real, alive, trustworthy and eternal, and always caring for us throughout life. New Church wisdom goes on to say that individuals have the opportunity to develop our spiritual selves and learn how to align our will with God’s will through Divine principles found in God’s Word. For me, this powerful wisdom is echoed in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 6, verses 31-33 where Christ says: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
To be sure, my friends, no matter what happens to us in life, even when we experience what for us are the hardest and most painful experiences we go through, still the Lord preserves this underlying purpose given every day: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mtt. 6:33)
In conclusion, September marks the transition from Summer into Autumn in the northern hemisphere. This change of seasons can symbolize for us a vital time of reflection and slowing down a bit, in order to process and make deeper sense of all we’ve experienced in Summertime. Just as the leaves gradually let go of the branch they were wedded to, so we too can see consciously where we needs to be letting go of the old, in preparation for a period of renewal. Our lives are indeed a progression of rebirth, learning and growing, followed by some form of letting go to prepare for what is new. An angel once summarized for my father what the core essence is of our seven-stage journey of spiritual growth called regeneration. He said to my Dad John, “Regeneration is summed up by this: embrace…and let go; embrace…and let go; embrace, and let go.” Ultimately all of life leads us into our biggest letting go and choosing to trust in God’s leading, when we physically die to prepare for our awakening into our higher Self. And then, just as Jesus did when He died upon His cross, we too can reach out to God and say, “‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!’ And having said this He breathed His last.” (Luke 23:46)
(1) Swedenborg, Emanuel. Arcana Coelestia. Translated by John Potts. West Chester, PA: Swedenborg Foundation, 1998.
(2) New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Rev. Kit Billings, his wife Penny, and their daughter Julia moved to LaPorte, Indiana in 2012, where he is Pastor of the LaPorte New Church, a historic Swedenborgian sacred space. Kit enjoys ministering with people of all ages, and supporting others in their journey of growth with the Lord.