An Inkling
Last week I was on study leave in Montreat (a Presbyterian enclave in the N.C. mountains). It was a week with many surprising turns of joy.
For one, there was the joy of unstructured time. While this wasn’t vacation (I did a lot of reading, sermon planning, etc), having no schedule was a joy, especially for one whose calendar is usually crowded. It was fun, and a good change of pace, to make up each day as it came.
Another joy came with the beautiful fall leaves. Who but the Lord could make even the “last throes” of something like leaves so lovely? A glance in any direction was a reminder of his creative brilliance.
Still another joy while we were there came with the visit of some friends from our years in Georgia. Through our church there Sarah was part of a covenant group with Susan, Tammy, and Cheryl. Since we moved here in 2007 we have managed to keep up with them in bits and pieces – often only at Facebook depth. So having some time to hear the next chapters of their stories was a joy. They gave both current perspectives on the dramas in their lives, and retrospectives on what had happened over these years. In both they honored the Lord simply by speaking aloud of his ways with their lives.
I can never get enough of that. One of the greatest joys in life is following people’s stories. Sometimes people apologize that they are “going on” as they recount what’s been happening, but I’m always fascinated to hear yet more examples of how God works in our lives, both “on stage” and “behind the scenes.” The only problem is that we seem never to have enough time to explore the stories fully. For the more we probe and reflect, the more amazing we see the Lord’s imagination and wisdom to be.
It just makes me look forward all the more to when we’ll be together in the presence of the master story teller himself, and have all the time needed to hear the whole story. If the joy we already have in the snippets we hear now is any indicator, then hearing whole story will be a joy (currently) beyond telling!
To be continued…
Keith
