Zora Neal Hurston's most famous title is Their Eyes Are Watching God. Now I have to admit that I've never read the book, but I've always loved the title. Some people have signature perfumes, so that you always recognize the scent when they are around. If I have any kind of "signature" at all, it's not a perfume, but a characteristic: I have always loved, loved, I tell you, watching God at work -- in people, in situations, in Scripture, in my own life.
Bishop Robert Barron calls it the "Theodrama," what God is all about --- yesterday, today, tomorrow. In his words, most of us are caught up in the "ego-drama," what we are doing, what's happening to us, what we are going through. But Mary and Elizabeth -- Mary went "with haste" to Elizabeth because she had found her place in the Theodrama -- in what God was doing. And Elizabeth in her old age rejoiced because suddenly she too had been caught up in God's great plan of salvation.
I remember when I first started teaching at the Community College in New Orleans. I was a part-time teacher without an office -- that's how new I was. So I hung out in the faculty room where the teachers had lunch. That became my office for a few hours a day, and I got to know the full-time faculty rather quickly. One of the teachers was an avowed and aggressive atheist, who resented and attacked any of her students making a reference to God or to religion. (She taught developmental reading, so conversation was a large part of her class.)
One day, she was on a rampage: "Why do students think they have to defend God?" she asked me. "God can take care of himself, can't He?" I smiled and said, "I think you are right about that." Upset that I had not argued with her, she stormed out. One of the other teachers turned to me and said, "With your background, don't you get upset about Mary?" My reply was, "I can't wait to see what God will do with Mary."
After a year as a part-time teacher, I realized that I needed to do a lot of research about teaching at the Community College, so I left the job for two years to pursue a Master's degree. When I returned to the College (another God-at-work story), lo and behold, my newly-assigned office was directly across a very narrow hall (almost rather a path) from Mary's office. The two of us would arrive each morning around 7:30 to prepare for 8:00 classes. Gradually, Mary began to ask questions about God, about religion, about almost any and everything. One of the other teachers in the office (we had cubicles without ceilings) started coming in early just to listen to our conversations across the hallway.
I was watching God at work -- the work was His, not mine. Mary, raised by a brilliant atheist mother who thought people who believed in God were stupid, began to soften her stance toward God. She began to ask more questions from a friend who went jogging with her on a regular basis. Did she ever come to any kind of faith in God? I don't know. All I know was that I smiled to myself whenever I thought about God, yes, God, placing my office door-to-door with Mary's office. That's all I had to know!
What follows today's entry is the third entry (2009) I ever wrote on this site. It explains the title of the blog, the reason I started writing in the first place, and the reason I continue. I just love watching God at work!!
Last weekend, my sister introduced me to New Harmony, Indiana, a social experiment from the 1800's that has become a modern refuge of peace and beauty in today's world. While there, I stumbled across a poem posted near a lake behind the inn. The author was not named, probably because he/she wanted the poem to stand as a tribute to the Creator rather than to its creator:
Stranger
When no one listens
To the quiet trees,
When no one notices
The sun in the pool;
When no one feels
The first drop of rain,
Or sees the last star;
Or hails the first morning
Of a giant world
Where the peace begins
And rages end:
One bird sits still
Watching the work of God:
One turning leaf,
Two falling blossoms,
Ten circles upon the pond.
As we stood there reading and re-reading these stunning words, a giant blue heron with a wingspan of at least 10-12 feet glided across the lake and landed about 50 feet away from us. Slowly he turned to face the water and stood quietly watching the "ten circles upon the pond," the "turning leaves," and the "falling blossoms." The moment was electric. We wondered whether the bird had been somehow trained to arrive at the precise moment of visitors reading the poem, but finally decided that the moment was truly a gift.
I wished desperately to find notecards or at least a poster with the poem and a blue heron during my visit to New Harmony, but it seems no one has taken on that mission. Were I an artist, I would set up a kiosk somewhere in town to sell my inspiration. That being somewhat impractical, though, I have decided to begin this blog as a tribute to the unknown author and to the blue heron which brought the poem to life for me.
So much of my life seems to be like that moment: watching the work of God. It is my desire to share some of my observations with others that has led to this blog. My wish is that it will do for you what the blue heron and an unknown poet has done for me.
