Saturday, August 23, 2003
Saturday, August 23, 2003
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him
be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
And that's the picture of the scriptures as well. We are born with a hunger in our souls, a hunger
for meaning, a hunger for purpose, a hunger to make sense out of our lives. And that hunger
leads us full circle round again to the one who made us. There's a verse in Ecclesiastes that
puts it like this, "He has set eternity in the hearts of men." (3:11) That's why life is a pilgrimage
for us, why we look for the meaning of our lives in the future, why we carry our question marks
with us toward that far horizon. William Wordsworth put it beautifully in one of his poems. He
describes our life as a journey across a tiny island. In the morning of our lives, we touch the
eastern shore. And through the days of our lives we wander our way west. But all across the
island we can still see the Sea of eternity that surrounds us, and we can still hear the lapping of
the waves in our hearts, "...in a season of calm weather/Though inland far we be/Our souls have
sight of that immortal sea." And it beckons us on to the far horizon, the western shore, where
God collects us once again with all of our new experiences into the grand mystery of His
serenity.
(2 Peter 3.18
NRSV)
There's an old legend told among the peoples of the Hebrides. It's the legend of the god of the
sea, who always wanted a child of his own, a human child. And once it almost happened. They
were going between the islands, some of the peoples, in small canoes. And the ocean god
tossed his waves, causing one of the canoes to capsized. The passengers fell into the water
and a young boy among them almost drowned, though they fetched him back from the waters.
"But," said the god, "I shall not worry, for I was able to toss a wavelet into the little one's heart. He
will come back to me, because the sea is in his soul."
Dear God, help me to never lose sight of your eternity. Amen.
