Mountains

One day, when my son was 7, he invited a friend from school over. We chatted with the parents at the close, and ended up inviting them for dinner.

So .. turned out we had met the Cornerstone group, who were newly arrived in town, a few years after we had come to Bendigo.  

That little seed has been a big blessing to us. Probably symbolic that my son made the connection - its been a key for him.

After a little while a certain synchronicity in some of the friendships, led to some shared holiday adventures, sailing boats and so on. And then when my son was old enough for their youth group, I found myself driving him to beach and river and snow camps.  

Its all a bit different in emphasis to my view of things – but  just like every snow flake is different, or different parts of a body express creative difference under a common unity.     

That’s what i want to write on here.  Snow flakes, or a snow camp, to be exact. I’ve ended up driving to a few of these  events. So I’ll mention couple of them, trace a crystal or two, for the unexpected themes, of romance and faithfulness, spoken today.    

Year 1 : Winter and Spring
One year the snow camp spanned the last of Winter and the first day of Spring.   And the night in between, back at camp, they group went to watch Chronicles of Narnia.

The co-incidence seemed meaningful to me -  when you consider that the plot of that movie is structured around the end of a 100 year winter, and  a new Spring emerging. That’s laden with symbolism; the witches power is broken, the spring thaw starts, the endlessly deferred Christmas finally arrives. 

 We literally watched it in the final minutes of that year’s winter, with spring in the air, after a day in melting snow, icy rivers gurgling with the thaw nearby. 

As if to bring home the point further for me, I just happened to have a copy of that movie bouncing round the bottom of my backpack. And we actually needed my copy, since the planned one was scratched.  

Next day the student leaders tried to explain from Romans something about the need to align ourselves with the empowerment of grace to counter the remnant power of sin. Although NT Wright was known to them, I don't think anyone quite saw the parallel. Perhaps it didn't matter that it wasn't named, maybe we got it by immersion. I mean that our state in these matters is similar to the land we were in, writ large in metaphors of the movie we had just watched.   "The Winter is ended and broken and Spring is here"*;  spring will  triumph over all snow. The Lion is afoot, the witch's power is broken. And while He on the move to again breathe life into his land,  in some places he has not yet been seen, the thaw is still occurring,  and evil fights on.  Although one side will inevitably win, some deadly battles remain.
It didn’t really matter that connection was missed I think, though it might have been a good poetic way to draw threads together. 

Incidentally I think we don’t always see the setup embedded in the scene we are in.

And so, to today’s trip.  
(Note that the winter ending and spring starting, is from Song of Songs; the love poem). 

Trip 2 : Day and Night, and shadows between
This year at snow camp, I took a few minutes and sat down at the summit of mountain and read a little bit.Some  revelation came.  About love and marriage, promise and fulfilment, of all things.  

Something opened up for me in these lines of Psalm 128:

Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.  

You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. 

 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.   

Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord.

What struck me here was the sense of land tended, bearing fruit, of reaping, “You will eat the fruit of your labour”.

So it says that fruitful  families, places of nurture and joy, are intended as a blessing, a fruit, of  walking with God. I’m blessed with a wife and children that sound like this fruitful vine and olive shoots, and grateful for it.  I know there are reasons and sometimes puzzles as to why it might not happen, or there are different paths, or seasons that might challenge that, but there is still a general principle laid out there.

(I also know that we can idolize that good state; or limit ourselves to it in a closed way, when 'family' is a DNA that is bigger, more expansive, more welcoming.  mapped onto our belonging in the Body of Christ, and it exist for all). 

It occurred to me. sitting on that mountain top,  how different that is to another verse, that also speaks of relationship, using similar metaphors (vines)   -  the romance of the Song of Songs.  “My own vineyard i have not kept”  sings the  Shulamite (1:6).  There is a sense of neglect here, perhaps of being distracted her from the basic responsibilities by “her brothers”.    

 The Song also speaks to me of a sense in which the extended courtship of the book, needs to occur, to some extent, in a land of shadows.

Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle  or like a young stag on the rugged hills.  (2:17) 

“Until  the day breaks .. “  the season of romance and courtship has an appointed time of shadows, of being hidden. Yet there is a timing, even an ending, to walking in these shadows. It must be subject to, contained, by light, daybreak.  

So I contrasted Psalm 128 - the fear of the Lord bearing fruit of healthy families, and the Song of Songs, which acknowledges a risk of neglect, a lack of fruit  (and later the vineyards in the Song are subject to ‘foxes’ which would damage them and must be caught). 

I also thought of Ruth. Of Ruth in the night: 

 Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!“Who are you?” he asked.“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”  (Ruth 3:7) 

However we dignify Ruth’s actions in terms of the rites and protocols of Hebrew culture, it must surely be an uncertain and charged moment in the darkness.  

It goes well. They talk. Boaz thanks her for the selection of him over younger men,  cites her character (even as a young foreign widow - a vulnerable position - that aspect is respected  in the village.) And then its debated and resolved, in the town square, whether this proposed relationship can be confirmed according to their customs.

It flies along quickly and all is well.

We don't debate quite the same points today of who has first right or responsibility in cases of young widows remarrying.

But even there it was more ambiguous than just a cultural deliberation of who was first in line.  Ruth still knew a negotiation of choice and romance in approaching her man, and he knew it too  ("you have favoured me, and not run after the younger men").

 Since what was proposed in the shadows, has stood the test of the light, of public discussion, they can be returned to a more valid intimacy.

Both of their characters has been molded in daylight, by service, by training, by suffering, by faithfulness  So the shadows are safe enough and traversed  - day breaks on this uncertain event, and  confirms and celebrates it, before night again.

So these things were quickened as i sat at the summit. And if i needed another reminder, when I came home that night,  I found a book on my shelf seemed highlighted. When I opened at random.the first sentence i read was :  "I felt the Lord tell me, i'm going to take you up to a mountain top to teach you something". 

So to repeat : the tentative proposal, that needed to made in the uncertain shadows, is all ratified in the light, or risks going astray. Maybe not quite as quickly as that story, but there is a principle there.  And the shadows of our heart must come to light, or we wander and stray. 

feedback loops
OK. So why, as a parent, past that stage, or more enjoying the vines and olives of a later stage, blog on such a seemingly random topic? And why would it be high-lighted to me?  Another snippet can tell. 

 I first rode the Great Victorian bike ride when i was 20 - thousands of us negotiating the same winding road.  Once, ascending a large hill, i passed an official on the two-way radio getting reports of crashes on the downhill side.  "They're still not learning!" exclaimed the exasperated martial into her radio as i rode past her.   

I remember thinking, "how can we be expected to learn, on this side?  Unless someone stands up to pass on the knowledge of the hazards on the other side, no-one is any the wiser - each of us only does this ride once".

The long stream of riders going past had no feedback loop. I often used to think of that as a school teacher - partly a role of feeding back to riders of whats ahead.  

And so maybe thats why i'm talking about this mountain top.

So to some thoughts on this.
Any good youth group has other goals than finding a Boaz for every Ruth, and knows there is a timing there  – it wants first and primarily to challenge people to know a devotion to that Lion, so they are ready to grow in authentic relationships, if that path is followed.    

But then at some point, in some season, however deferred and structured to honour the King, it's a necessary  'distraction' into a time of shadow.  (I deliberately use courtship here, too, as an old fashioned word that can still apply - its no older than the Lion seeking to melt and heal hearts).  So then, when establishing a relationship, time to linger, to be in the shadows to some extent, is needed. 

And when this season happens the mission might get a little blurry. 

But it's not for ever. Until the day breaks, symbolically speaking. There is a timing to this.

So I found that day, in what Christians often call "devotions",  a reminder of this principle:  There can be a time for walking in the moonlight, those shadowy places, and a time for such to be established and ratified in the midday sun.

 Otherwise the pleasant shadows, rather than breaking in dawn,  risk becoming a walk into darkness. 

And then one can end up neglecting vineyards. Sacrificing too much for romance. The Song also knows  love  “is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.”  The powerful forces can be deadly.

 (We see the sorry tales elsewhere; the classic errors of the king - more in my season - and the flow of stories that are off kilter across the generations - Amnon and Tamar and how it ends in brother killing brother and undoing a kings strength –- these forces are not something to miscue or invoke in untimely ways. "Do not awaken love", counsels the Song, "until its time". )

There is grace here too, for those who stumble, who come off the bike.    

My brief coffee devotion was ended.  The day panned out well this year, and I sensed the wisdom and need for this in the young charges in the group;  an embedded scene too. 

Day and Night : Winter and Spring 
Finally, a note to bring the metaphors together.

The Song, which knows a wisdom of shadows,  breaking in clear day, also knows a calling to be in His spring, rather than our selfish winter.

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

  Flowers appear on the earth;

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves

is heard in our land.

  The fig tree forms its early fruit;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one, come with me.”  (S of S 2:11)

These are hearts that know Him first, and then each other. That way works better, lessens the unreasonable demand on the other, that otherwise can become idolatrous. Other melting and light has been known first.  The whole thing is a season in lightened hearts.  

So a permanent shift - from winter to spring – in our grasp of Him, our melting in Him first, is reported. It’s a better, many times over, in that order. 

Grace, remains, for those unwarned, or who tumble astray anyway. 
Better not to, though.