Two Shoes

The creation that is out there and all around us never shows any sign of getting in a hurry.  It simply moves purposefully forward into the unfolding future, but always in its own time and according to it own schedule.  The pecans which set as tiny pods in the trees during the early Spring will come to a season of maturity and harvest, but only when the appointed time has passed.  The cows in the pasture walking around and getting heavy with calves will drop a new crop on the ground but only after the appointed days and months have  been counted.  What happens,  happens slowly.  Everywhere it is the same.  

Of course, there is one exception  Folks like us live in a hurry.  We seem to have no understanding that things are to happen in due time instead of our time.  We can learn much about how to live by watching the creation and we can learn something about the right pace for living as seek to live in sync with the created order put out there before us by our common Creator.  A ninth century theologian known as John Scotus Eriugena "taught Christ moves among us in two shoes, as it were, one shoe being that of creation, the other that of the Scriptures, and stressed the need to be as alert to Christ moving among us in creation as we are to the voice of Christ in the Scripture."  ("Listening to the Heartbeat of God" by J. Philip Newell)

 

It sounds like a heresy to speak of the creation being an expression of God's presence and Word in the world in a way which would equate it with the Scripture.  And while learning to pay attention to the manifestations of God in the creation can be a life changing journey, it is not an excuse or a reason to lay down the Word.  Celtic spirituality invites us to read from the book constantly being written all around us in the creation as well as the written book inspired by the Spirit that we have been gifted to hold in our hands and our heart.