Blog 157 – 11.9.15

At the funerals of both of my parents, a little over three years apart, we asked my cousin to sing Sheltered Safe Within the Arms of God. That is often a very tearful leg of our journey having to say, “See you later” to those who gave so much to us and tried their best to prepare us for life without them. There is a very comforting verse that says, “When my mother and father forsake me then the LORD will lift me up.”

Some years ago there was a very popular print out called Footsteps. It was a beautiful picture of tracks in the sand along a beach. For a while there would be two sets of tracks and then for a while only one set then two sets again. This theme repeated across the picture. There was a poem superimposed over the lovely scene. It was a sort of prayer where the writer was speaking to God about their walk together and asking why at sometimes along the journey God had left them. God, the perfect Father, replied, “Why, Child, I never left you. Those times when there were only one set of tracks is when I picked you up and carried you.” One of my favorite Christians songs says, “He was there all the time, He was there all the time, waiting patiently I line. He was there all the time.”

We struggle so much and have been taught by our own egos and those of others to fear going with the flow and allowing the wind to blow us where it will. But I am here to tell you that relaxing, letting go, and letting God or the Universe have his perfect way is the only sane way to live. Years ago Greyhound had a commercial that said, “Leave the driving to us.” In some commercials they even named the bus driver Gus.” I think that is appropriate as the true driver is Gus, God in us to will and do his good pleasure.

We are most of us such “control freaks” always thinking we must be in charge. I have come to believe that the only free will we have is in taking the long way home. The God of the Old Testament allowed his children to wander around in the desert for thirty years before they were ready to enter the promise land. Some people believe, and I am one, that this life is but a dream and we can awake anytime we are ready. In one of the first books I ever read entirely, A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall, toward the end she tells her young son what dying is like as she explains the death of his father. She says and I paraphrase from memory. Son, you know how often you are tired in the evenings from a day of play and fall asleep on the carpet but you always wake up in the morning in your own bed safe and warm. Well, that is because your daddy picked you up in his strong loving arms and carried you to you bed. Peter Marshall’s last words to his beloved Catherine were, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Relax and enjoy the dream. Allow the Great Dream Maker to make it a sweet one. If I don’t see you again along the journey, I will see you in the morning when we wake.

Your friend and fellow traveler, dreamer,
David White