Hello, fellow pilgrims. As I write this, I am mindful that today is a very special father’s day. In the Episcopal Church (and the Anglican Communion), today is the day that we honor and celebrate St. Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus and devoted husband to Mary—guardian and protector of both. St. Joseph was called to enter into an unfamiliar wilderness that was both dangerous and righteous: marry this woman who is pregnant with another’s child (God’s child) and care-for and protect them as his own. He heard the call and he followed it. He was a man of virtue and enduring faith—trusting that God was with them steadfastly along the way, no matter how arduous and frightening their journey became.
We don’t have a lot of information about St. Joseph, and we have even less information about Jesus’ childhood. But what we do have points us toward the creative power of faith and the seemingly impossible things that can happen as a result of faith even as tiny as the smallest of seeds.
Faith as tiny as the smallest of seeds speaks to this week’s theme in our Lenten Devotional: wonder and growth and Living Water. Our Sabbath poem this week is How long does it take to make the woods? In this poem, Wendell Berry likens the creation of the woods to the creation of the world, both reflecting the magnitude of our Creator’s love for us, which is always being made. The woods and the world as acts of Love—eternal Love. I particularly love his image of our six-days’ journey of life into that seventh day of Sabbath rest. Think six days of creating the world and a seventh day to rest. To Wendell Berry, and perhaps to many of us, that Sabbath space is the woods. To enter into it and truly experience rest, we must let go of our worldly concerns and lean into to the beauty of Creation—a lifeforce not separate from us, but of which we are a crucial part.
That narrow gate that Berry speaks of is that window of opportunity to pause, take in the fullness and beauty of creation, and with every breath thank God for the privilege to consecrate, protect, and honor it—with every breath thank God for the privilege to consecrate, protect, and honor yourself as part of it.
Peace and Love to you as you consecrate, protect, and honor of yourself as part of Creation.
You are Beautiful, and you are Beloved.
Angela+