I have always been drawn to times of change in the rhythm of the day. During the winter I will pull open the drapes even though it might still be pitch black as though it were in the dead of night. As the hour unfolds, I try to watch the gradual shift from darkness into light. The shift of colors is something watch, and I find myself disappointed some days when there are clouds enough to block the sunrise but not enough to bring out the ambient glow of the early day that come when there is a thick overcast sky.
On this day, there has been a heavy frost even though the temperature had not dropped more than a degree or two below freezing. Hoar frost clung to the myriad of branches of my beloved tree and on all of the other shrubs in my sight around the yard. I thought it curious how the frost seemed to gather light that was still just a promise to come and allowed it to glitter light gray against a dark blue and black backdrop. The sky was jet black which promised a clearing sky by daylight although I could not see stars through the pane glass windows.
I had filled the feeders with peanuts and cubes hoping the corvids might come to visit. Strangely enough they seem to have slowed down the visits to my feeders and when they do come they rarely consume everything except for the loose peanuts I might spread on the ground. As I finished up prayer I noted the dawn had begun to slip in and their flittering shadows zipping and pausing the through the tree limbs. I noticed the feeders were spinning and swinging as if they had been hit by some invisible force. The corvids, crows who have been hit and miss since the onset of winter, ever faithful magpies and my frisky smaller jays materialized out of the dark to literally buzz the feeders. They remained coal black in the predawn light, even the blue jays were still without any other color, not even gray yet. I had never experienced visitors to the feeders before first light but here they were dive bombing the feeders light fighter planes buzzed ships during the war. A constellation of frozen shards and crystals showered down from the tree, knocked loose by the fervent flights of the birds darting through the branches to steal a turn at the feeders.
They continued to fly sorties against the food stores until well after dawn and were still raiding the feeders as we left for church. I felt more at peace than I had for months.
The story and lessons I learned that day are too broad and too deep to convey all at once in once setting so I will break this telling into three parts with just few comments about the direction of journey.
I have long been fascinated by the theology and Spirituality of the Celts and I have become nothing less than a disciple of Irish poet John O'Donohue because of the way his words can awake the unknowable and unseen in a human to suddenly feel a connection with is known and can be seen.
All of life is spent in a threshold where we are caught in perpetual coming and going. No matter where we stand, we are always on the verge of step into what is to become. There is no resting, only brief pauses while we catch our breath and consider where our next foot fall will land. In this year, I am standing threshold of a crucible as I move from a lifelong vocation into the next lands of avocations. Every second there is another hope and the next a fear that is followed by fear and then comfort of something precious to come into play.
Thus says the Lord:
Stand at the crossroads, and look,
And ask for the ancient paths,
Where the go way lies; and walk in it,
And find rest for your souls.
-Jeremiah 6:16
Crossroads are decision points and the pondering of which direction to go places us in a threshold where we not only must choose whether to retreat, remain or proceed forward but to also choose the way we will go forth. It is a near certainty that to be on the threshold means there is no option to turn back nor is there any hope of remaining in place. The winds of life only blow us ahead of themselves and we can never do more than pause until we are too exhausted to resist and have to the forces of life push us onward.
Jeremiah, speaking to the ancient Hebrews warned to stand in the threshold and consider carefully which way to go. What are the ancient paths? We can look to our faith history and understand what they are and where to find them. Don’t choose as Cain did and throw himself down a road of betrayal. Choose as David did, seek forgiveness and for the wisdom to make right decisions. The message to us is to choose the path the Lord has planned for us. The trip will be far simpler but not always easy.
Take this passage and make of it a personal Lectio Divina this week. What is God trying to teach you as you study the versus? Don’t just take what I have said as being the full truth for that is a cape you must make for yourself.
My blessing this week? May you find rest for your soul.
