Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
As I write this I am sitting in my sister’s house in Montana watching the sun rise over the Elkhorn Mountains. The mountains are just waking up, opening their snow-topped eyes. A scattered herd of clouds grazes in the southeast. The sun sits there just behind the ridge with his bathrobe on. And in the pasture up the hill a horse is sitting, watching, and some elk are grazing. At first I thought they were all the neighbor’s horses, but five of them are elk, gradually moving this way. It’s quiet.
We are led to lie down in greener pastures than we think, surrounded by a wider, deeper blessing than we notice or trust. We complain about rushing around, but we can lie down. We are accompanied by others who are different from us, but there is no reason the horses and the elk can’t graze in the same pasture. When Jesus said there would be one flock, he didn’t mean we would all be the same. But we do all belong to one Creation, to one God. It’s not easy, as attached as we are to getting where we’re going, to lie down, to appreciate the wonder of the world, to let others lie down in our world. But that’s actually the way it is. We are shepherded. We are grazing in green pastures whether we know it or not. We are part of one flock, whether we see it or not. And it’s a quiet morning.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
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Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net