Into the Wildness

I am surrounded this morning by a congregation of trees which at times seem impenetrable.  It is dwelling in a wilderness of sorts.  What lurks in the darkness of this place, the silence pierced only by the sounds of animals I do not know, and the unknown around every bend? 

I grew up in a home where our research scientist father considered staying in a Holiday Inn about as wilderness as he would venture  into.  Our mother who was a musician regarded a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken on our deck as an outdoor experience.  Once as an early teenager,  I remember her driving my brothers and me to a local ski place on a school night when we could ski all evening for two bucks.  In the course of the evening, I wondered where she was.  And I spotted her -- sitting in the car -- practicing her violin.

In the craziness of my parents' lives, their mantra appeared to be, "make life as safe as possible."

But as an adult, I have grown in my own experience in the wilderness.  Instead of regarding the unknown with fear, I see it differently now.  I see the beauty and wonder of the woods, the ever changing landscape, the movement of the seasons of life, and the presence of the Creator in every leaf and water spilling over rocks.

The wilderness is no longer a scary place,
but a place of wonder.

And as I walk through life right now,
the unknown is no longer a place of fear,
but a place of His abiding.

I walk into the wildness of His grace.

Remember not the former thiings,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth,
         do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
         and rivers in the desert.

                          Isaiah 43. 19-19