I love this photo of Beangirl. Because she didn’t know I was taking it. Because she’s so focused on her steps and on how the snow looks just ahead of her boots. Because she’s growing up and you can see it here in this snapshot, beautiful and terrifying and real.
Today’s word in the Rethink Church Lenten Photo Project is Path, so I’m sharing this image of my growing daughter walking on her own through the snow. And I’m not sure if the clever people behind this project have deliberately linked the words with the lectionary (or if Methodists even use the lectionary) but I’m finding that it all fits together quite nicely today. Because the reading for this week starts on the road.
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?
Some questions are easier to discuss when you’re facing the same direction. And this was likely a strange one. A bit gossipy, even. Jesus wants to know what the disciples have been hearing. The word on the street as it were. But he also wanted to know how they would answer for themselves and Peter comes out with his bold confession: You are the Messiah. An important step in his own journey, which then gets us thinking about our own journeys and our own confessions.
The lectionary reading ends with Jesus’ call Follow me – which is, of course, another road image. Once again, we’re reminded that the people of God are a pilgrim people.
Which feels fitting around here, too.
This morning, I had to be away from home for a meeting with Nitekirk folk and so Plum had the good fortune of a playdate with a big kid friend and a kindly mum. When my meeting was finished, we all ate noodle soup at our table together. Like us, they are expats following an academic daddy and learning to live away from family networks. There is a certain uncertainty built into that job desciption and we talked about how to plug into community and really find ways of enjoying a place without feeling grief at the possibility of change.
It was good to talk with someone who understands.
Pilgrim people, right? It’s good to be reminded.
Because change is going to happen. Everywhere and to all of us. Things just don’t stay the same. Sure, I’m thinking about job applications and possible moves. About what on earth will it be like to relocate our now-older kids and about how could we possibly leave our communities here. And about other friends and families close and scattered who are also listening for calls and wondering where they will next feel rooted and at home. And about kids who just keep growing and changing and beginning to imagine their own roads. Things change for all of us regardless of who or where we are.
Which is wonderful.
We are called to listen for the Spirit of God and there’s a wildness to that call. A great open space for wonder.
Sometimes we hear the unexpected. Like Jesus’ stern warning to Peter to tell no one. That must have made him lean in and pay attention. And perhaps that was the point. Maybe it was a surprising way of calling us into a deeper listening. A way of keeping the doors open for others. Because once we start declaring facts, we are asking people to receive God as information. And it’s hard to have a personal relationship with information. Hard to stay open and listening if you think you already know. There’s something I can walk with, I think, in these Lenten days. There’s a path to try as we try to listen and we try to walk by faith.
