Connections

While working in my yard on Saturday afternoon I had a mystical and short encounter as a shining emerald hummingbird stopped about two inches from my elbow. The little creature was so close its wings fanned my arm. It hovered there and allowed me to glimpse its beauty and majesty and then in a second it was gone. It almost seemed like it had never been there but yet it surely was. I still carry the image of the miraculously engineered agile bird in my memory.

My visit by such a wonder was, I think, something of a theophany (a God appearance). That tiny bird flies to the tip of South America in an annual migration and covers thousands of miles in its flight. Its metabolism and heart rate are enormous and its wings flutter thousands of times in less than a minute. Truly it is a testament of the Creator’s imagination.

Many folks at Good Shepherd and St. Mary’s Episcopal have seen loved one’s finish their earthly journey in the past two weeks. Those lives seem a bit like the visit of the hummingbird; brief but wondrous and fixed in our memories. These experiences teach us to appreciate and cherish the lives that are shared with ours. So often we do take for granted the marvelous people God gifts us with in such infinite variety.

For those who live in modern society we seem to be able to detach from one another with an easiness that is becoming far too available and quick. Time spent face to face engaged in honest listening to a friend, spouse, or child is replaced by frenzied schedules or texts or Face Book posts; but none of those replaces face time given and made for those we love and cherish. As I grow older I realize that more and more.

Summer will soon be ending and we gear up for a new school year and a new church year and that is all as it should be. Growing up I knew summer was about done when all the drugstores and five and dimes started to display bit boxes of pencils and Blue Horse notebook paper. I always had a sense that my glorious summer freedom was about to end and no longer would I be outside playing baseball with the neighborhood pick up teams, flying balsa airplanes in a big field, or playing hide and seek till my mother made us come inside at even fall. If I could go back to any point in time I would go to that era in a minute.

Summer is ending and “going back” is never an option. Enjoy this God given time while you can and engage those you love and care about in meaningful ways. Be kind. Be grateful for those who come our way wearing God’s face. May we too do the same as well.

Andrew +