As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him,
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
~ Luke 9:57-58
Early this year, we were in Washington State and we were awed at the beauty that is Mount Rainier. There she stood majestically, glacier-capped, silent and solitary, affecting everything on and around her.
There she has stood for eons. Mute yet perceptive. She carries in her rocks and soil a record of ages past. In her bowels are the records of how the earth has been transformed and changed over time. She has witnessed ice ages, volcanic upheavals, climate changes, storms and earthquakes. If we know how to listen, she has many stories to tell.
I have also often stood under many giant Sequoia trees here in California and marveled at their height, size and age. I would hold their trunks or just stand under their shade to try to catch some of the pranha they have been collecting and storing through the centuries they have been around. These trees, standing silent and solitary, are also mute witnesses and faithful recorders of everything that have transpired. Scientists have learned to read the rings of their trunks to know how the climate and weather have been through the years. Yes, if we know how to listen, they too have many stories to tell.
I often spent moments in silence and solitude, like the majestic mountain or like the towering centuries-old trees, and I hear the beating of my heart. I feel a deep kinship to the mountains and the trees. They came before me as though somebody had to prepare a place before I could come into life. And in the silence and solitude, I hear the whisperings only a believing heart could hear: “I have loved you since the beginning of time. But it took me a while to get things ready for your coming. Now, will you follow me?”
“Lord, thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for nature and the world and people around me that make me possible. I dare not ask for anything more.”