Are We There Yet?

      Are we there yet?  Anyone who has traveled with children has heard this phrase more than once.  And if you have heard it once, you've heard it many times until the destination is finally reached.

      I remember traveling from west central Kansas to Denver with my daughter when she was still quite small.  As a preschooler, she had limited reading skills.  Unfortunately, they were enough to allow her to read the speed limit signs and from Kanorado (small town on the border) on, she would periodically cry out, "Look Mommy, only six five to to Denver!"  After explaining several times that we were still a long way from Denver, "only six five to Denver" turned into "Are we there yet?" She wanted to hurry up and get there; she was anxious to see her aunt, she was impatient.  But it was also a question of boredom, of being tired of being in the car, of getting hungry and stiff, and weary.

      Are we there yet?  When is Jesus coming?  When is God going to make things right?  How long do we have to struggle, argue with one another, and wait for the Church to be whole and united in Christ?  When will things be the way they should be?  When we will know the answers to all our questions and understand what God is teaching us?  When will things stop changing and just be the way they are supposed to be and just what is that supposed to look like?  When will everyone agree (with me)?

       From the beginning, there has been disagreement amongst people as to what it means to be faithful.  For some it was what Jesus did: eating with sinners and tax collectors, speaking with women in public, or healing on the Sabbath.  For other people, the dividing line became what Jesus asked of his followers, 'Sell all you have, give it to the poor and come follow me".    For still others, it was what Jesus said: "I am the living bread that comes down from heaven".  Those words in this last Sunday's Gospel were too difficult from some to listen to and accept.  It says, "Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him."  So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" (John 6:66-67)

      They stayed, even after denying Jesus, running away from the cross, and hiding behind locked doors.  All but Judas continued in faith, witnessing and carrying on the work Jesus had given them to do because the Holy Spirit gave them the strength and faith to do it in spite of disagreement and even persecution.  They didn't see the end of sin and brokenness and the coming of God's kingdom on earth but they held on with hope by the gift of faith.  

      No, we aren't there yet.  We still have imperfect understandings, and we are all still sinners in need of forgiveness and healing.   But we are to have hope - the promise of Jesus is sure.  As James writes, "Be patient, therefore, beloved,... do not grumble against one another..." "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed." (verse 16)   Read James 5:7-9

There's always some to give

The economy is on everyone's minds these days. Even if you don't want to think about it, you can't get away from it because it seems that the first, last, and middle stories on the newscasts all focus on whether the economy is getting better. It makes for a lot of conversation about money, spending, and debt.

I was talking with someone the other day and we were sharing memories of when we grew up and our perceptions of money. Neither of us felt poor but we did remember things our families did to save money and stretch it as far as we could. One of the experiences we shared was that getting new clothes was rare - and wearing hand-me-downs was normal for just about everyone.

I had "luck" of being the third girl in my family and quite a bit younger than my sisters, so I got a lot of hand-me-downs. I didn't always like it, but it wasn't bad until my mother decided that it would be cute to dress us all like for special occasions. We had usually gotten new dresses for things like Christmas and Easter. At first it was okay because we each still had a new dress and Mom was a terrific seamstress. They were beautiful! and then I out grew mine and wore the next size up and eventually the next one. So I wore the same dress for years! At least by the time I got done with them, they were too worn out for my little sister.

Still, with all of that, we didn't feel poor. I learned an important lesson. I knew what poor was and we weren't poor because there was always enough to share with others. As though seven kids weren't enough, there were always extra people around our house: a cousin that became a foster child, international students, and assorted others. There was always room around for more. You never feel poor if there is enough to share.

My husband experienced that at its deepest in Cuernavaca, Mexico on a World Hunger mission trip. The group went to bible study in the poorest part of town, where most of the people lived in shanties built of odds and ends of discarded wood, tin, cardboard, and anything else useable. Water was scarce, sewage was a ditch dug along side of the road. People lived on very little but they shared. Even there, the hostess had borrowed chairs and boxes for everyone to sit on and served tea and burritos to her guests. It was important for her to share and for the group to eat with her. My husband has never forgotten that meal.

When you have enough to share with someone who truly has a need, you find yourself feeling grateful instead of complaining and blessed instead of put upon. Jesus put it this way,

"Sell your possessions, and give alms (donations to the hungry and poor). Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:33-34

Look, It's God!

I have to admit it, I love creation - it is one of the child-like virtues I work at not losing. It's that sense of being able to look at all the colors of a sunset and be amazed at the variety of hues from purples to pinks, reds and oranges, to the navy blues and bright turquoise. The immensity of the scale on which the sunset is painted makes it hard to take in with one glance. To really see it, you have to stop at least a moment and just look and the longer you look, you begin to notice the changes because even as you watch, clouds are moving and the colors are changing as the sky grows darker.

        Little children have the gift of wonder, whether it's because they are truly seeing things for the first time or also because they don't yet have explanations and reasons for things. For them the world is a place of wonder that hasn't yet been replaced by "understanding". Things are amazing just because they are. I remember looking out and seeing one of my children squatted down looking intently at the ground. Minutes later, they were in the same place in the same position. It didn't look like they were doing anything but I couldn't see anything happening either. I came out and asked what they were doing. They didn't even answer, just pointed at the ground. I still didn't see anything and asked again. They pointed again and I bent down further. All I could see were ants on the ground but what they saw watching the ants march in columns through the dirt and grass kept their attention and imagination for a long time.

        I got lost in some of that amazement sitting on my sister's deck as I watched ruby-throated hummingbirds buzz about between all the flowers and the feeders. At one point, a hummingbird had to chase away a large bumblebee that had also discovered the hummingbird feeder. It was incredible to see this tiny bird, not much larger than the bee, with its wings beating so fast that they are virtually invisible. They are so tiny that at one point, one of them perched on a twist tie fastened to a planter along the rail. As they sped between the flowers and feeders, I learned that not only do hummingbirds sound like huge buzzing bees but they also make tiny high-pitched squeaking noises as they fly.

        Later that same day in the front yard, I saw a moving shadow and looked up. Flying low over the house was a large bald eagle, close enough that I could clearly see the white of the head and tail and the large talons and beak. What a contrast from the buzz of the tiny hummingbird to the powerful and majestic flight of the eagle! As it flew away and over the edge of the bluff, it gave a loud piercing whistle.

        In the opening of the Bible, it is written that God created the heavens and the earth, "And God saw that it was good". There is a lot of discussion and argument about God and creation and science these days and whether or not or how science and the Bible intersect. I don't think it is a matter of whether or not science and faith are irreconcilable; it is a matter of wonder. Wonder reminds us of our humanity and of the immensity of God. Wonder also reminds us of our duty and need to care for all that God has made. Faith doesn't ask us to understand how God created, but to stand in awe and believe that God created.

        The problem occurs when we become so wrapped up in what we think we know that we forget to be amazed by the creation around us. We tend to lose God right long with our sense of wonder because we focus on our knowledge, our work, and what we think we control. This self-centeredness is a condition that affects both scientists and creationists. Isaiah puts us back into perspective by asking: "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" (Isaiah 40:12)

        As we pause to wonder at the creation God has made, it is even more amazing to remember that this God is with us always in love. Read Psalm 8.