Pineview Musings

The recent trip across state to see my Dad began early and as I went toward the western horizon, I thought about an old friend who lives in a town called Pineview which is actually smaller than the small town in which I live.  It had been some time since we had sat together for a conversation.  Between us were several volumes of memory.  We both spent the better part of our years trying to grow churches and in retirement we have both ended up trying to grow things from the dirt.  He has done well turning his space into an oasis of colorful blooms, fruit trees, and artistically laid out planting beds for things to grow.  As we stood out there together for a few moments, the freshness of creation was overpowering.   

Creation speaks to us about a partnership to which we were first invited in that early season of beginning when the Creator God prowled the Garden at the time of evening breeze.  (Genesis 3:8).  It is also about an invitation to put our hands in the dirt as keepers of the sacred created stuff of the earth.  It is obvious that my old friend has lived faithfully inside that trust to work and keep.  

What I also noticed were the piles of debris waiting for a wheelbarrow, the plants not yet planted, and the empty spaces that were being made ready for tomorrow, a work in progress kind of place.  What I saw was a place of beauty, but also a messy place, and  a work in progress.  In such a place there is always something to do which speaks to how God sees me and my friend in our older years.   We are a bit messy at times, we are a work in progress, and the best part is that God has not yet finished with us.