and when earthly things are past, bring our ransomed
souls at last
where they need no star to guide, where no clouds Thy
glory hide.
---William C. Dix, 1861
Have you ever been on that road trip? The one where, because nobody is exactly sure where you are going, everybody
is sure where you are going? The one where
arguments follow every wrong turn (and every right, or left, one, for that
matter)? The one where, for the life of you, you can’t remember what was so
good about wherever it was you
were going that you had to get in this car full of clowns and drive there? The
one where the only thing you had running through your head was Tracy Chapman
singing ‘Give Me One Reason to Stay Here (and I’ll Turn Right Back Around)’?
Good trip gone bad, baby.
Now, imagine that trip---but with no clear destination, and
only a vaguely-formed purpose in mind. Oh. And maybe the journey will take TWO YEARS. Or not. You’re on a need-to-know basis with the
unfolding story, and apparently you don’t #needtoknow all that much. The things
you know? Track the movements of a strange celestial happening, and follow that
star. And find a King. No, not your king
(that would be so easy---what do you think this is? Hide and seek?)…the King of
a religious group in a Roman-occupied territory over there in that
general vicinity. Oh. Now things become
clear. #eyeroll But patience is a virtue, and the astronomers have plenty of
time to work on their virtue as they follow.
You and I, though---how would we do with a challenge that
nebulous, directions that vague, an objective sketched out in shifting sand
instead of concrete? Would we follow, gifts at the ready--- staking our
reputations, our futures, our hopes on a promise we traced on a map of the sky?
Would we gamble on a God who gambles on us, buying our souls
from the meaninglessness of living without the star?
…and when earthly things are past, bring our ransomed
souls at last
where no one needs a GPS, the path to show, the way to
bless.
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