The Unseen Here and
Now . . .
Stuart
Revercomb
Stuart
Revercomb is a marketing consultant and joyously married father of four
children. He seems to remember someone once telling him he ought to be
a writer. "The Unseen Here and Now" -- Thursdays.
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"Thursday's Fare"
May 9, 2002
Your Guess Is As Good As Mine...
Long ago, I promised myself I would never write a column about a column. I always felt that to do so would be to declare that I had absolutely nothing worth saying that week and that I might as well have taken the day off and gone fishing. (Never a bad idea..)
Which brings me to the first rule about making rules.
Never rule ANYTHING out. God has a way of doing exactly what we think he won't - or at the very least, that which we never expect. Which is kind of what this column's about. Try to pin down in any precise manner, the workings of the Spirit in this world, and the first thing you'll find out is that he'll quickly teach you part B of rule number 1.
The ways of God are past finding out. (That's a quote by the way...)
If you're a regular reader you may remember this year's Easter column, written a scant 4 weeks ago, in which I toasted our dear friend the Easter Bunny. Who, by my own words, was "maniacal", "deranged" and "just not right" - a "distraction in the midst of all the news that is news" - "a macabre comedy hopping around on the sidelines of it all..."
Did I really say that? Man, I was hard on the Bunny.
To my credit - I ultimately ended all this lambasting with the thought that,"it didn't much matter... that ultimately not even the distraction of the Easter Bunny during holy week could separate us from the love of God, if we have but ears to hear. I then went on to say that the wife and I would continue to, "carefully lay out 4 little baskets with pink and green grass as fake and plastic as the Bunny himself..."
Speaking for myself, of course, I thought the metaphor of that pink and green grass as the representation of just how fake the Bunny was, was a pretty good one - it's hard to get more artificial than plastic grass. Grass is so pure and natural... plastic is so, well, plastic. The image stuck well with me for some reason, and on Maundy Thursday, (the day the column came up), I found myself contemplating the mess that the stringy, wrinkly stuff would make all over our house on Easter morning. Why couldn't we just get up early as a family and hike up some pristine ridge and watch the sun rise? I could see its rays penetrating some low scudding clouds, as flowers opened in anticipation of the glory to come and birdsong drifted by sweet and pure on the breeze...
Later that day as I climbed entirely too high on a thirty foot ladder to cut a limb that was hanging precipitously over our front walk, I recalled my daydream. From my perch on high I could see all of downtown and the rest of the valley stretching out towards the airport to the north. "Wow - this is as good a view as you'd find anywhere...", I commented to my wife who was holding the ladder and my life in her hands below. No sooner had the words come out, than I looked to my left and saw it.
It was one of the most well constructed bird's nests I have ever seen. I couldn't see over the top, but I imagined 3 bright blue Robin's eggs inside. It was placed perfectly in the fork of a limb, just above a lower branch that gave it added security. "Ah, what a perfect symbol of Easter...", I thought. I looked closer. It was made of sticks and bark and earth and straw and... something else... something string-like and colorful and... and...
There, interwoven with all the other materials, were several strands of plastic pink and green Easter grass. The wind laughed long and loud above me. "I can work with anything", it said as it blew steadily through the branches filled with fresh Spring buds ready to bloom. "Don't worry about your Bunny..."
It has been 4 weeks. It is Thursday again, and I have already finished double checking the column that has come on-line this morning. It is about "taking ones time and going with the flow of things"- setting one's clock to that of the Spirit by not creating a "hurried, worldly schedule." I have just left work to have a leaking tire repaired and am traveling away from downtown on Jefferson Street. As I move through the series of lights going away from the heart of the city, a small red pick-up passes me at a high rate of speed. He is driving much as I do when I'm in a hurry. His racing from light to light reminds me to "practice what I preach" and go with the flow of things. I slow down and begin to time the lights so that I never have to touch my brakes. Meanwhile he is stopping and going - stopping and going...
As I approach Elm avenue the little red pickup has already blazed ahead and is almost to the next light. I have just begun to enter the intersection under a green light, when I sense some movement to my right. I glance over just in time to see a 30,000 pound AEP "Superboom" utility truck barreling in from the side. The driver has lost control and is sliding at perhaps 30 MPH through a red light. I have just enough time to think, "this probably won't kill me, but its going to hurt..."
"BAM!" The massive truck slams into the back right quarter panel of my Tahoe, (Thank goodness I don't drive a Kia), and spins me sideways. I manage to straighten back out and stay in control while the truck goes sliding on through the intersection. Another couple of feet forward, (a little bit slower and in the "flow of things"), and all that energy would have been transferred in a classic "T-bone" collision. I'm not sure I would have walked away from it. As it is, I step out of the car unscathed. I look up just in time to see the red pickup disappear over the hill.
The wind is blowing through the trees again - it doesn't seem to be laughing quite so much, but I do think I hear something about, "having the universe all figured out..." There is also a word or two about the positive aspects of a "bump in the road from time to time..." But the AEP driver is fine. I am fine. The earth, she still spins...
Who's to say why things, "do or don't happen?" Certainly not me. These past couple of Thursdays have reminded me that the issues and truth's that make their way to this page can perhaps help us figure out a little bit about who and who's we are. But outside of some very basic tenants, they can never make a claim to absolute Truth, and I never intend to do so. Ultimately they are an invitation - an effort to share my own understandings in a way that says, "this is the view from here - come take a look and decide for yourself..." Breathe in and breathe out the grace and beauty as well as the loss and sadness of your own life, and see too if the Spirit doesn't speak in some way of the love and mystery of a God that somehow can't help but love us - a God who is willing to let us author our own lives and ultimately, much of the creation he has given - a God who asks little more than we trust him in return...
There. That's pretty much it I think.
Oh, yeah - one more thing... I really DON'T want to win the lottery this week... just wouldn't be a convenient time I'm certain....Nope,.the Big Games not for me... think of all the tax issues...