Prompted again in thought today by a reading from Rachel Remem’s My Grandfather’s Blessings:
If you have ever walked a labyrinth you may recall the deception inherent in the journey. In the beginning, and at points thereafter, it feels like you are headed to the center, then in a few steps there is a sudden change and it feels like you have your back to the center and are headed in the wrong direction. This process repeats itself with frequency. It is on these twists and turns in life that Remen writes:
“Could events that seemed meaningless, or even wasteful [perhaps even cruel] be taking me to a destination as surely as the twisting and turning path I had just followed? Perhaps my path only seemed random because I was still on it. At the end, from the center, would I someday see my life as complete and whole and recognize a hidden direction and patterns that redeemed loss and failure and pain and utterly changed their meaning and value?”
I think she is on to something. Even now, thankfully, the path contains (if I recognize them) occasional moments that invite reinterpretation of some of life’s twists and turns and allow me some understanding as to how (and perhaps why) they got me from there to here.
And like the labyrinth, that’s a long way, circuitous way to get from the start to Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Onward.
It occurs to me... 