[In Due Time]
I enter morning prayer and the following words are brought to my consciousness:
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend. (Albert Camus)
These are words that have resonated with me over the years and words that I have jokingly spoken to my husband if he is outpacing me on one of our walks. The key to prayer and good conversation is asking the extra question. “What Lord are you trying to show me?” Jesus shows me a beautiful example of how man can think they “get it” but in fact get it all wrong. Jesus shows me the words:
[When you run ahead, I WILL follow. When you follow I WILL lead you to your next best self. So that we can walk together side by side through eternity.]
This is our path to relation with Jesus. We race ahead straining for independence and autonomy. God willing, in the midst of our own GPS miscalculations we weary and allow Jesus to take the lead. From here, He will carry us through the brokeness to a place of greater strength, faith, trust, peace and wisdom. This brings us together with our Lord step in step, establishing a friendship marked by the back and forth of sharing, discovery, and trust. Of course the Spirit took this enlightenment and applied it today’s readings. Without the wisdom of the first, I would not have been easily led to the second.
“You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of Good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat. The moment you eat from it, you are surely doomed to die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
“Nothing that comes from the outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” When He got home away form the crowd, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile…” Mark 7:14-18
God did not deny man the fruit of the tree of good and evil because He sought to keep us ignorant. God knows us. He knows that we are runners. We run ahead with small pieces of His picture and we get it wrong. We twist it. We take what is black and white and we make gray. Even with the amazing capacity of our beautiful minds, we do not have God’s vast truth, knowledge, and wisdom. God desired to walk daily with us in the garden while He shared Himself and brought us step by step closer to Him. He sought to share this fruit with us over time as we were ready. The Gospel shows us man’s continued propensity to get it wrong. This reveals to us the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus came that He may once again walk with us and lead us to the Wisdom behind the knowledge. It is not enough for us to know “what.” We must be brought to God’s “why" otherwise we get it wrong. Jesus came to lead us to the great Who, What, Where, When, How, and most importantly Why of life so that we can stop running ahead or tagging behind. Jesus seeks to walk with us once more side by side in the paradise of friendship and betrothal.
