 |
Environmental
Stewardship Commission
(MEESC) |
 |
|
Environmental
Stewardship Commission
(MEESC) |
|
The Singing River
by the Rev Roger Weaver
The river was singing last night. The last time I heard that much music was several years ago. I can remember the first time I heard it. It was our first winter here and I think we were heading out to see Larry's dark house on Pelican Lake. It was super cold that day and the ice was doing its thing. I can't come up with an analogy or a word for the sound. It was a cross between thunder and moaning. All controlled of course and coming from depths I didn't want to encounter. Last night was similar. There were also some high-pitched sounds that took on the alto's part. At times I thought it sounded like the whale music I've heard on recordings. It did, but yes, it was different. Like the whale, it was music out of the deep, but unlike the whale, it was more confined, controlled -- like it escaped from the deep. For a second the ice lost its hold on it and it was freed. Part of the magic of last night was that you don't know when it will happen again. You just have to be there when it is happening and be alert enough to hear it.
That's the way it is with wild things. They reveal self on their terms,
not ours. The parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom fits
the wilderness even better than it does the Christmas season. Be ready
because we don't know the hour in which they will come. Be the wild things
a deer or the northern lights or the singing of river ice, they come when
they come, and it is up to us to be there and be ready. And God, being
the wildest of all wild ones, comes into our lives like ice singing, northern
lights dancing, or a deer flashing its tail and leaving us in the dusk.
One of the major themes of Jesus of Nazareth was that life is overflowing
with the love of God. Like the seeds of the sower, God's love is thrown
all over the place. Now this seems hard for some to believe. Not for me,
but it does present me with wonderment. How come things that happen in
such a scarce sort of way like deer, ice singing, northern lights, and
all kinds of wild things; how come when they do happen, they make life
and love seem so super abundant?
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