The Greater Gift

When the Celtic saint set himself in a small coracle and turned loose of the shore's hold to go wherever the wind and the current would take him, he saw himself as beginning a journey, or a pilgrimage which would lead him to the place of his resurrection.  The place of his resurrection was understood to be a place to which the Spirit led him spend the rest of his life.  It was a journey with no destination or goal in view.  Wherever it ended was up to the Spirit.

 

While I have read so many things in recent years which have sought to describe and define the journey of faith which is a part of the life of any believer in Christ, no image has resonated in such a powerful way as the image of these saints from another generation and another century.  In the beginning it seems to most of us that we have some understanding, and perhaps, even some control over where we are going with Christ.  We begin with our plans and rigidly work to keep those plans in place.

 

As the poem declares, "the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry..," so, it has been with my plans.  Maybe it has been the same with all of us.  One of the insights of retrospection is that the journey has taken a course not planned, or anticipated.  It has been filled with things beyond imagination and things which would not have been chosen.  But, all along the way, the Spirit has been working to bring us to a place where the rest of life could be lived in faithfulness to God.  No greater gift could be given us on this journey.