How many times have you heard, how many times have I written – Lent is a journey. Suzy would ask, “where are you going?” She has a very good point. We know a little about Christ’s journey from the temptations of the desert to torture and death. We know that along the way he gave us a simple rule to live by — “love thy neighbor,” and a few stories,(parables), that point out the way our journeys should take, but not so clearly that the directions are subject to interpretation. Most importantly he made it clear that no matter how far we stray off path, we are loved and can make our way back. What the Gospels give us are snippets, just a few snapshots of a journey. We don’t know even for sure how long it took. Biblical scholars estimate three years, but exactly how long or exactly the route is merely an educated guess, at best.
“Where are you going?” Suzy asks. I think the answer may be, “I don’t know, but something is going to happen.” I used to think “that something” would be some major event or miracle. ( I have had those happen unexpectantly, some real doozies, but we are talking about today’s journey.) We dream about miracles, and major happenings believing we are ripe for them to occur. Then nothing like we expect happens at all. But something does happen. It happens in the drumbeat of our daily life. Those moments in our day where we see, smell, or hear the occasional glimmering through of Grace. We sense the muffled presence of God, or in our family or neighbors, we see images, partial at best and ambiguous, of Christ.
The Gospels give us just a few moments in the life of Christ here on earth. But in those moments something happened, and the world was changed forever. In your journey’s happenings, that at the time may seem so small and inconsequential, your world may change forever as well.
Reading your meditations today, I was reminded of a photo in the new National Geographic of wheatgrass, which grows on the Kansas prairie. It is a perennial that gradually sends down a root system about six or eight feet long. Your long string of Lenten meditations is looking like that. Very study, reaching deep, helping to stabilize the surrounding soil. And birds and other creatures are nourished by the seed. Good stuff, in other words. Please keep your wheatgrass growing.
I think Saturday of the 2nd week in Lent–Jesus in our midst–is superb. Very real to me.
Mike