Surprising Seasons

There was a time when the year was clearly divided into the four seasons.  Later in life as I got involved in the liturgical life of the church, I became familiar with still another listing of seasons like Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.  As these later years took me down a road where the calendar of the church faded from view, new seasons, seasons never really noted, have come into my life and sometimes passed at the dawning of still other moments of time.

The writer of Ecclesiastes hit the nail on the head when he wrote, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)  Some times in life are remembered as seasons of loss.  Some are remembered as seasons of great joy.  Some are experienced as seasons of change.  Others are called seasons of spiritual growth, or seasons of seeking, or even seasons of rest.  Life is not quite as orderly as we would like for it to be.  It gets messy and often stays that way for longer than we would choose.  Some seasons are filled with sunshine and blue skies and others come as dark powerful storms that change the landscape of our heart. 

But, even as spring and summer and fall and winter come and go, so do the other seasons of our life.  And even as the four seasons on the calendar speak of the order of the creation, so do these seasons that we end up remembering and naming in the deep places of our heart.  As surely as God is in control during the spring and winter, so is He in control in the season of loss and the season of heartbreak.  He is the One who holds together all the messy parts of our life.  What comes surely passes through divine hands.  The plan He has for the creation includes even the smallest parts of it like each one of us. 

The Hummingbird Encounter

A hummingbird did a fly-in on the front porch this morning when I stepped out to see where the cows were grazing.  I heard a loud buzzing noise which caused me to look around for the source of the noise.  When I turned around, it seemed that the hovering hummingbird and I were staring at one another eye-to-eye.  For the briefest of moments we spent a piece of the morning together and then he was gone into the air above the brown hayfield.  It was one of the memorable moments of the day.  The next time one stops by for such a close encounter I will not be so surprised.

Hummingbirds are marvelous creatures.  Who among us would have thought "bird" and created something so wonderfully made?  Actually, all the creatures God has made are wonderfully made.  Some may have more appeal than others and some may be more fascinating to us than others, but every creature that shares life with us on this planet is as much a creation of the hands of the Almighty as each one of us. 

 

Sometimes we forget this truth about ourselves.  There is nothing that is ordinary about any single one of us.  With more people on the planet that we could count, there is no one like anyone of us.  It is not just our outward appearance which makes us unique, but more importantly, the way God has hand shaped our soul.  With a personality and spirit different from any other, we each have been created to relate to the heart of God in a unique way.  Even as each of our biological children are different, we are even more different as one of God's created children.  Never should we look in the mirror and put ourselves down for we bear the image of the divine and carry the essence of our Creator God everywhere we go. 

I Am Blessed

When she came from out back to behind the counter in the bakery part of the store, I was not surprised to see this older woman dressed in an ankle length simple pink dress underneath her apron.  After all, it was a Mennonite bakery and restaurant.   As morning greetings were exchanged I said to her, "Hope your day is going well," and she responded by saying, "I am blessed."  The words she spoke resonated from the joyful countenance which showed beneath the small white cloth covering upon her graying head. 

All day I have carried her words, "I am blessed," with me.  In a way she could not have imagined when she spoke, she has blessed me all day long.  Whenever my mind found a neutral moment, those words took hold and brought blessing in my life.  Simple words.  They were surely words spoken from a grateful heart.  Blessings may come from God, but recognizing the gifts of God as blessings only comes to us as we receive them with gratitude. 

Try it some day when it seems that the gray clouds have pulled all the sunlight out of the world where we live.  As we begin to see and acknowledge the things around us which bless us, a sour attitude is likely to be overcome by thanksgiving.  And what blesses us?  Everything around us has the inherent power to bless our life.  We simply do not always have eyes to see.  A bird blesses us with the beauty of flight.  A tree blesses us with shade on a hot day.  A glass of cold water blesses us as it quenches thirst.   A stranger blesses us with a gesture of kindness.  Ah, blessings, simple blessings do abound and we, like the Mennonite lady, are surely one of those so grateful that we, too, could be heard saying, "I am blessed."

Not Alone

Today we journey, 
   but not alone,
   though no one ahead,
   no one behind,
   no one beside us.
Still not alone.
   God is with us.

Today we journey,
   in the Shadow,
   with the Light,
   always ahead,
   constantly beside.
Never alone.
   Christ is with us.

Today we journey,
   pushed along,
   sometimes pulled,
   swirling Wind,
   never stilled.
Alone impossible.
   Spirit is with us.

Today we journey.
   companions three,
   ever present,
   visible, invisible,
   over and around,
God, Christ, Holy Spirit,
   always being with us.

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.

Steps

Small steps,
   like those of a child
   learning to walk,
   faltering and uncertain
one way, then another,
   but forward.

Steps to ahead,
   wherever that is,
   an unseen place,
   strange, fearful
stretching out there,
   like stepping stones.

In His steps,
   dusty imprints.
   seen, then unseen,
   always signs
planted along the way,
   for eyes of faith.

Falling Yellow Leaves

From my porch chair I looked through the rising smoke of the grill and watched yellow leaves as they turned loose of lofty perches to begin their wind driven journey to the ground.  One after another turned loose and took the journey.  They were surely the first of hundreds of thousands still green and hanging tenaciously to the place they have been perched since bud break back in the Spring.  It is more than just a journey to the ground.  Their arrival on the ground is only the beginning of the rest of the journey which will once again join them to the tree and its continued life in another year.

 

As I watched, I was reminded of the journey of faith which is a part of our lives as we trust in Christ.  We are constantly being asked to turn loose of the things which give us a sense of security and comfort.  As we move along through the years of the faith journey, we come to understand that faith is always about turning loose of the things which grant us comfort and security.  What we are called to do in this journey of faith with Christ is to turn loose of what we hold tenaciously so that the Wind driven part of the journey can continue. 

 

When we turn loose and the Holy Wind takes hold of us, it will carry us to a place where the things upon which we depend for life become as dead limbs in winter's trees.  And as we are caught up in the holy journey, we discover that we are taken to a place where our own lives experience a kind of resurrection that makes us a part of what God is continuing to do in the world around us.  When we dare to let go and give the Holy Wind air under us, we can know that our own usefulness to the holy endeavors of God is about to be renewed.  What a blessing comes to us as we dare to allow our faith to set us free from the things we hold too tightly.