Who, But Us?

¨Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? There is no one but us. There is is no one to send, nor a clean hand, nor a pure heart on the face of the earth, nor in the earth, but only us, a generation comforting ourselves with the notion that we have come at an awkward time, that our innocent fathers are all dead -as if innocence had ever been- and our children busy and troubled, and we ourselves unfit, not yet ready, having each of us chosen wrongly, made a false start, failed, yielded to impulse and the tangled comfort of pleasures, and grown exhausted, unable to seek the thread, weak, and involved. But there is no one but us. There never has been.¨

--Annie Dillard

In the middle of September I realized I had passed the half-way mark of my travels. Time is beyond my control, it´s out of my reach, it´s on the loose. I´ve spend the last two weeks recovering and petitioning the Lord. This is what I am learning.

I am just passing through this strange country. ¨God is at home¨ says Meister Eckhard, ¨We are in the far country.¨ The same God that sent Isaiah, who, the poor chap, happened to be the only one nearby, sends me. He continues to send.

I am only a traveler, a foreigner; all I know is now. I know that the Lord redeems. He has redeemed my life, he continues to redeem. He is the Father of me, of these children I pass each day with. He calls us His children and He is leading us home. That is firm, and that is all I have. He is leading me, he is leading us, home.

Note: These thoughts were all ignited by a book that presently seems to follow me, Holy the Firm. A book written by Annie Dillard.