I walked Holmes with a red leash; that is the one explicit color detail I remember from an autumn afternoon in 2012. The leash belted around my waist, so Holmes and I could alternate who led and followed on our pedestrian explorations.
Thus, I can vividly recall that it was Holmes, my beloved canine companion, rescued from a sidewalk pen, who sniffed out the path that led to my savior.
Our rugged, tree-dense trail, high in the hills of northwest Austin, opened up into a field, and that is where Jesus found me. What I found first was a wooden cross, standing firm in the landscape, a beacon I was not looking for but desperately needed. I sat down underneath it, humbled by the simple majesty of wood and nails, and perplexed by how this cross ended up in this field. Like it was waiting for me all along.
Next, I saw a sign nearby, and, in the space of a posterboard, it explained God with us, Jesus’ life, and ministry. Divine encounter spoke directly to my soul, which had been crying out for more than the daily drivel of our lost world, and made me curious about the Carpenter. To know more, I needed to read, which was ironic because scripture had always scared me like it was the wrath of an angry father. My inborn knowing of God was contradicted by the legalizations of institutionalized religion; from the emptiness of this cultural misunderstanding, Jesus invited me into the Word, where I experienced what I wanted most, for God is love.
In retrospect, Jesus met me with more than an invitation. The wooden cross I found in the field was a yes or no question.
“Do you want to be healed?” Jesus asks.
How could I be healed if I did not even admit I was hurting?1
Are You Tuned In?
Each day is an invitation to live as new as the morning sun, a shining expression of faith and hope, and when we accept this invitation we also answer the call to take up the work of the harvest.
Our decisions cultivate, and the field is forged by discernment. Wisdom lights the way, alerts us to dead ends and “do not enter” situations, and arms us against misleading directions on maps drawn by the world.
May the dignity of creation be our Teacher, as we open to perceive knowledge and understanding as natural resources all around us. “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if only we will tune in,” George Washington Carver said.
- A continuation of the “Mystery of Minimal Abundance.” An irregular series. Thank you for your patience. ↩︎
