Path In The Rain Forest
Paths through the woods are often beckoning and fascinating, always calling us forward into new discoveries around every turn.
It was some 50 years ago that our paths began to come together. At first tentatively; the paths would converge for a brief time then move off in their own separate directions. Then gradually the paths converged for longer and longer stretches. And then, over weeks and months, we chose to make those paths one. And along the way other paths have crossed ours, sometimes joining in the same path for awhile, then branching off into their separate journeys.
How miraculous that I have been chosen to walk this path with you. From the very first we’ve been aware that there was an Other with us on the path; sometimes accompanying, sometimes comforting, sometimes subtly guiding, but always there. Now I’ve become aware that the Other is not always somehow separate, but I see the Other more and more in you. Until at times those are almost hard to distinguish.
And I’m not the only one to see the Other in you. For many it was as ‘pastor’s wife’. For hundreds of others, it’s been as they sat across from you in your office and have seen the Other in your gentle spirit and wise counsel. For others, it’s been across a table as you shared a meal or a coffee and they have seen the Other in a wise and caring friend.
How thankful I am, as Valentine’s day approaches, that my path has become yours and yours mine, so that they are one. In one way, there are certainly individual aspects of each path, but we have chosen to walk our path together, as one. I can hardly wait to see what’s around the next turn, as we journey together and the Other increasingly becomes part of both of us.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
