It never ceases to amaze me what comes when I simply let my heart wonder*, when I give heed to its nudges and inclinations. As I sat outside late last week, I googled "Master Navigator". The phrase had stuck with me ever since I first used it casually a couple of days prior. It was something that simply came to mind, but my heart latched onto it. Thus curiosity was born and out of that curiosity I discovered the story of Mau Piailug. As an infant, Mau was chosen by his grandfather to become a traditional wayfinder. One charged with guiding the village as they sailed the seas and to protect & pass on the knowledge that they possessed. The story elaborates on how the later came to pass. It is a beautiful story. I cried. I began to wonder if interwoven into the fabric of creation is the principle that some things cannot be put into writing. Not into a book. Not into a training course. Not into a video. Things that to be learned, to be taught, must be passed on from person to person by experience and experience alone. Sometimes by experience of the subject at hand and sometimes by experiencing the person himself, or herself. I started this post. Came to a stopping point. Picked it up again the next day. Set it down. Came back to it. Walked away. There was frustration. There was an incompleteness to what I wanted to share. What I was actually sharing. It was turning into a tirade with subtle hints of vitriol. This isn't what I want. This isn't what should be. I made a concerted effort this morning to again sit outside and gather my thoughts and my heart. I decided to scrap the post and start from scratch. I don't remember the moment, but I do recall that it arose from the simple thought that it is all about relationship. I feel like it was my Father once again hitting me over the head with a crowbar to drill it in. Relationship. Relationship. Relationship. Nothing else matters. Nothing. Yes, that was it. In Mau's story, it was the idea of relationship that moved me. The older generation passing down to a younger generation knowledge and experience by means of relationship. Let me share myself with you and in the process bring you to the place where you can walk the path on your own. The same path that I have walked as has all those that have come before me and as will all those that follow after you. Yes, this is what rests upon my heart today and what my heart was moved by last week. Woven through countless stories of the Bible is the theme of relationship starting with the Garden. Think about it. Adam & Eve sinned and brought to God's perfect creation death and the consequences of death. Yet, he did not immediately appear and pronounce judgement. He waited. We don't know the amount of time that transpired from the moment Adam & Eve sinned and the appearance of the Lord God walking in the garden. It had to have been several hours. Time would have passed. Time for Adam & Eve to get over their shame so that they could speak to each other once more. Time to discuss what they had done and what they should do. Time to formulate a plan. Time to gather the fig leaves. Time to sew them together. It was only after all of this that the Lord God appeared. And then when he did, he plays dumb. "Adam? Where are you?" Of course God knew exactly where Adam was. "Naked? You're naked?... Huh?... who... who told you that you were naked? I don't understand... wait a minute... did you eat of the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?" Of course God knew exactly what had happened. He knew the moment that it had. He had seen the moment long before it would ever transpire. "Woman, what is this you have done? Help me to understand this I'm not quite getting it." Of course God knew exactly how this had transpired and fully understood. His Holiness demanded that sin be dealt with and dealt with immediately. We all know the story of Uzzah being immediately struck down for touching the Ark of the Covenant. Tradition holds that a rope was tied to the High Priest when he entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement so that his body could be safely dragged out should he be struck down for not following the commandments of God to the letter. Yet in that moment in which sin entered creation and thus all subsequent sins, the Most High, the Holy One of Israel, did not strike them down. He cursed the serpent and his creation and then he clothed them. Sin was dealt with that day in the manner that was required for that moment, but the judgement of God did not overshadow, dismiss or otherwise diminish the relationship that God had with Adam & Eve.
And so it is that I have come to that place where I began my tirade several days back. The vitriol is brewing on the stove. It's nearly ready. But I... I shall leave for now and return when the time is right. *Yes, I mean "wonder" and not "wander".