Reader, Walking: Hide and Seek

When we first started walking in the late winter, all was brown – except when it was white with snow.  Variation on the theme of brown was cause for notice and celebration. When the harbinger of spring and ramps were out and noticeable, they were noticeable specifically because all else was sameness. 

But as the green filled in, rising from the floor to eye level to canopy, the variations became harder to separate in sight.  

We have a harder time seeing the trees for the forest.

Often, we find specific plants and flowers in patches. Here is a large group of trillium, there a bunch of Virginia Bluebells, yet a patch of goldenseal up here.  But those patches are rarely an unadulterated grouping of one flower; there are other beauties to see mixed in: fungus, moss, lichen, another wildflower or more. Sometimes patches overlap patches.

Here’s the thing. I can see, sort of, the expanse. I can see individual flowers, one, maybe two, at a time within the expanse of the patch. My ability to attend is limited.

God’s ability to attend is unlimited. As a part of his omnipresence and omniscience, he can see each and every flower individually as it sprouts, grows, matures, and even dies. He can glory in their beauty even when they are unseen by human eyes, hidden on a hill for just his own pleasure. 

But. God doesn’t have the joy of the find. We have been given a gift in our limitation, we can be going along and enjoying one Virginia Bluebell

only to turn the corner and -surprise!- find a patch of them intermingled with trillium and may apples. 

In many ways, the finding is the fun. The seeing, yes, but the finding is a joy.

This finding isn’t just in flowers, but even in our relationships with people. There is great joy in finding the right community, a good friend, a common interest.

Better yet, God promises that when we seek Him, we will find  him when we seek Him with our hearts. He will be found by us.  He also tells us that he will go out to seek and save the lost sheep (cf the lost Adam?) … but it isn’t because He doesn’t know where to find us. 

And that is true, eternal joy for a finite people.