God on the Road

I don’t think I have ever imagined that I would meet God in a carrot.

Yet that is exactly what happened recently.

I had the privilege of working at our local food pantry on Saturday. My assignment was to open bags of carrots, reach in and grab about a dozen or so, then place them in the bags other volunteers were filling with the assortment of fresh vegetables and fruits available to be distributed that day.

There is nothing that immediately struck me as particularly sacred about the carrots that were to occupy my time for the next hour or so. I knew, but was not really thinking about, the fact that carrots are part of God’s bounty from the goodness of God’s earth. I was aware that carrots are a good source of beta-carotene, which is necessary for a good diet and to maintain one’s eyesight. Still, none of these things were on my mind.

Instead, I grabbed that first forty pound bag of carrots, hauled it to the floor, opened it, reached in and took the first of many, many bunches of carrots, and put them in the first of many, many plastic bags that volunteers placed in front of me. As the process unfolded, one plastic bag after another, my attention was drawn to a number of things…things sacred:

• I thought of the families who saved the plastic bags from all their trips to the store, then donated them to the food pantry, individuals responding to God’s commandment to love neighbor as self;

• I thought of the warehouse that donated all those carrots to food pantries rather than having them go to waste;

• I was reminded of the simple, straightforward, yet wondrous process by which we have carrots to eat—a tiny seed is planted, shoots come out of the ground, are watered and weeded, then…at the proper time, the good soil gives us carrot after carrot after carrot;

• As I reached into bag after bag after bag of carrots, the texture of the carrots and the very “dirt” that remained on them brought me back to the stuff of creation, the elemental aspects of everything we encounter on this good earth;

• Throughout the process, I had the joy of interacting with the other volunteers as they went about their work. There is something about God’s people engaged together in God’s work that is absolutely enlivening. I daresay no group of people ever have more fun while engaged in work. I was enlivened by their laughter and their smiles.

These words from the opening chapter of Genesis played in my mind: “Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with seed in it.’ And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind [including carrots!], and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good.”

God goes on to urge the first humans: “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.”

The good people of our local food pantry were acting from God’s gift, giving vegetables and fruit to those of God’s people in need in our area.

And I was given the gift of meeting God in carrots.

And, oh, by the way, the goodness of God’s gift of carrots could be seen as well in the children working the line who, with smiles on their faces, took a carrot at the end of the morning, quickly washed it [or not], and relished each crunchy bite!

Thank God for carrots.

We encounter God continually yet, for me, I am all-too-often consumed with my “busyness” and I overlook the sacred.

Recently, while visiting with a church member in the hospital, she pointed to a blue knitted shawl that was at the foot of her bed, and asked me to retrieve it. She proceeded to tell me the story of the shawl.

The church member had arrived at the hospital via the emergency room. In the hustle and bustle that is pandemic to emergency rooms, one nurse reached out to this member with especially loving care and made her feel better even in the midst of the medical crisis. The church member, quietly and with genuine emotion as a tear ran down her cheek, said that the nurse recognized her as a sister in Christ! And she felt the same way. God’s love was present in their discussions with one another and in every glance and touch.

Though they had just met, they responded to one another in love, thus fulfilling Christ’s injunction found in John 13:34: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have love you, you also should love one another.”

The church member was admitted to the hospital and, a day later, the emergency room nurse arrived at her room and delivered a deep blue prayer shawl. The nurse offered that she hoped the shawl would provide warmth and comfort.

A tear ran down the church member’s face as she described receiving the shawl, clutching it to her neck as she did so.

And I saw God.

I saw God who is love made manifest in a shawl lovingly knitted by one who lives daily by the new commandment Jesus gives his disciples. The prayer shawl is sacred. Holding the shawl is grasping the holy. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The shawl is nothing less that love embodied.

And the prayer shawl witnesses to the world, even as it gives the touch of God to one dear lady battling a life-threatening disease.

So I thank God for emergency room nurses, and for those who commit time to knitting shawls that continually pray to God for sacred presence, healing, comfort, and love.

I have officiated at four weddings this year.

Each time I was reminded of the passage in First John 4:16 that reads: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” I remind every couple that their love for one another is no less than God in this world.  The great privilege I have as I meet with the couples prior to the wedding and stand before them at the ceremony is that I see God anew.

I see God anew in the love that leads two individuals to make a covenant together to live as husband and wife.  First John 4:12 posits that “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”  When I say, then, that I see God anew in each couple, I refer to God’s reigning attribute—love—at work.  I may not literally see God…but I recognize the God who is none other than love as two people commit to lives beyond themselves…a life in which what they do and who they are will be guided first and foremost by love…a love that is willing to give all on behalf of the other.

A love that is willing to give all on behalf of another is none other than God, a God we recognize most distinctly in Jesus Christ whose very life, death, and resurrection embodied love itself…and shows us how to live.

I thank God for each couple who permit me to see again the God of love.

And I thank God for each person, married or otherwise, who dedicates life itself to the grand purpose beyond self.  Such is love.  And, as First John 4:7 reminds us “because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God”…and offers others a glimpse of God.

Thanks be to God!

I have often observed that the entire Bible is a story of God’s relationship with God’s creation.  I frequently wonder whether God has second thoughts about the creation of we humans as we have been a problem–at least that is one perspective–nearly from the beginning.

Nonetheless, it was Jesus who reminded the disciples of the central importance of relationship, positing that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength…and to love our neighbors as well.  And it is in relationship that I experience God most often.

This past weekend, my wife and I got together for dinner with some friends.  It happened to be the birthday for one of them and we helped celebrate yet another milestone in her life.  This is a group of friends we have known for nearly thirty years now.  For many years, we met for dinner together nearly every Friday night.  As our children grew, they took to calling us the FNG–the Friday Night Gang.

The FNG is a special group.

The FNG has rejoiced with the birth of each child.

The FNG has shared the grief as members dealt with deaths and losses.

The FNG celebrates birthdays.

The FNG marks milestones…the high school and college graduations of our children…the anniversaries of our marriages.

The FNG shares the joy of the Christmas holiday each year.

And the FNG has rung in the new year together for nearly three decades.

In short, the Friday Night Gang has been a manifestation of God’s love for one another in our corner of the universe.  For me, they have been an extraordinary blessing, a reminder of the purpose for which we all were created and the purpose to which we all are called.

Thanks be to God for the FNG…and all the other relationships through which we experience the God who is love!

Last week, I completed the first week of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE).  I am working on the chaplain’s staff at a Richmond hospital, spending my day visiting patients.  It is an intensive way to spend time and, ultimately, an offering of God’s blessing in my life.

Perhaps it sounds strange to offer that spending the day with patients who are suffering is a blessing.  Certainly my prayer is that no one would ever need to spend time in a hospital…but the reality is otherwise.  And God is present.  And I encounter God in amazing ways in my time with the patients.

One example from my first week: I visited with a woman who had undergone surgery to replace both knees.  The first day I saw her she had just come from surgery and clearly was in a great deal of pain.  Hers was a suffering presence.  Still, despite the pain, she offered thanks to God for the miracles of modern medicine that offer a palliative for deteriorating joints.

Two days later, this lady’s mother and father related to me how the birth of this woman was an answer to prayer for them.  Yet, early in her life (while she was still in elementary school) she began to experience a variety of orthopaedic problems.  It turns out that her life has been one of battling constant pain of arthritis.  And this surgery was just one in a series that has included hip replacement as well.  Nonetheless, her parents spoke of her strong faith in God and the witness of a life dedicated to service to others.

As I was talking with the parents, the woman emerged from her room, moving slowly but surely with the assistance of a walker.  And whereas her countenance two days earlier had been overwhelmingly one of suffering, on this day her face was aglow (in the midst of pain) and she greeted us with a broad smile.  Her first words were: “God is good.  God is good all the time!”

I have rarely felt so humbled.  I knew immediately that I was in the presence of a living God, a living God who acknowledges our suffering, a living God who gives us hope in the midst of suffering.

The family asked for prayer…and the prayer God gave me was one of thankfulness for God’s presence and God’s witness in the life of this brave soul.  And I prayed a prayer that I know is answered: that God will continue to surround her…and us…with God’s compassion, with God’s healing arms, and that God will help each of us be God’s grace and love in this world.

I thank God for the possibilities of celebrating in the midst of suffering.

I work at a college.  My daughter just finished her senior year in college.  I attend a seminary.  Institutions of higher education each and it is the season for graduations, for commencing another chapter in life. 

Earlier this month, I attended the baccalaureate and commencement where I work…and the baccalaureate preacher, Dr. Brian Blount (who happens to the president of the seminary I attend), spoke from the final chapter of Mark, a chapter that has at least three endings.  Dr. Blount exhorted the graduates to go forth and write their own endings, endings that express the hope and love and grace seen in the life of Jesus Christ.

A week later, the speaker at my daughter’s baccalaureate encouraged her class to engage the world with the values of honesty and care for creation and one another. 

And just yesterday, I went to the commencement ceremonies for my seminary as many of those with whom I began the program three years ago were graduated (I am one of those who is cramming three years into four).  The commencement speaker spoke from the parable of the talents and reminded us that we are called to be faithful and fruitful with whatever God entrusts to us.  And, further, we will be called to account…someone is watching us.  And while it most assuredly is true that the world is watching us, the speaker noted that our God, a God of love yet a God who calls us to service for God’s kingdom, also is watching.

I encountered God in each of these settings.  God was visible in the energy and excitement (and apprehension) present with the young graduates where I work and those who are my daughter’s classmates.  Their optimism and hope for the future speak of God’s presence in their lives even though some may not be aware of that.

And God was especially present as my classmates at seminary celebrated the conclusion of years of hard work…hard work in preparation for faithful and what I am confident will be fruitful service on behalf of God’s kingdom.  God was visible in the faces of all the faculty and staff who had nurtured these new servants of God…and God was present in the smiles of all the friends and family who celebrated with the seminary graduates (as well as the family and friends of the graduates at the other ceremonies I attended).

God was present…because our God of relationships could be felt and seen in the loving relationships that have nurtured and sustained all those whose labors commence with the conclusion of study. 

I thank God for the relationships and pray that God may continue to bless each abundantly.

This season of year always brings two phenomena that remind me of God.

I am not a gardener.  My dear wife has a certificate demonstrating that she is a master gardening critic…and she is married to someone who is, at best, cheap labor when it comes to gardening.  She is able to take almost any plant and make it grow…and not only grow but thrive whether it is potted indoors or put in just the right soil at the right depth with the right nutrients outdoors.

I can manage to dig the hole and shove the dirt arount the plant…with proper supervision.

Still…as spring arrives each year, I go in search of the bluet, a delicate blue flower that seems to thrive in a number of areas.  And I go in search of the lady’s slipper, an absolutely beautiful flower that is both delicate and rare. 

Yet these two flowers have something in common.

My master gardener spouse tells me that we humans have not been able to grow the bluet or the lady’s slipper.  Unlike the tulip or daffodil or rose or marigold or zenia or however many other flowers that humans have been able to take and grow for commercial purposes, the bluet and lady’s slipper are found only in the wild…in God’s creation by God’s hand.

Even the most masterful of human hands cannot manage to duplicate these two wondrous works of God.

I find comfort in the realization that God’s creation ultimately is in God’s hands alone…and that there are some–in reality, many–things within our world that defy human imagination and control.

Thank you, God, for bluets and lady’s slippers.