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Transformed Imaginations
Imagination (noun): The faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is Read More
Pamela Couture | Read Psalm 1:1-3 , Read Jeremiah 17:7-8
I can lose myself easily in Richard Wagamese’s descriptions of Ontario lake country—the pines, the cliffs, the water. I imagine paddling the lakes or driving through the forest to White Dog reserve.
His town, Kenora, Ontario, lies across the border and northwest of Minnesota’s Voyageurs National Park, where my family formerly vacationed on a wooded island, Nokomis. A lodge on the island allowed us to take our whole family, from infants to elders, into the lake country we treasured. At the end of summer 2003, Nokomis was scheduled to revert to wilderness as part of Voyageurs. One sunny August day, a few weeks before the park service burned to the ground the lodge on the island, my brother stood on the pier gazing at the lake, mourning. I vowed to find a cabin in a similar setting where we could continue to create intergenerational memories.
A decade later I sat at my desk in the second-story window of this new cabin contemplating the trunks of the tall white pines with new eyes. I wondered for the first time, How is it possible that a collection of biological cells, one built upon another in a narrow, round cylinder, can be strong enough to grow to fifty feet and support the graceful, sweeping arms of the white pine’s branches and needles? I’d taken these trees for granted. As I marveled at this miracle, I felt equally blessed and naïve. Richard Wagamese captured this gratitude in his description of lake country from his native perspective, and Jeremiah and the psalmist offer the image of a tree’s flourishing near water as a basic description of those who trust and delight in the Lord. A flourishing tree seems like a miracle; what miracles might we experience in our lives when we trust in the Lord?
Blessed are those who know the miracle of the tree, its strength and its grandeur.
God wants us to be rooted firmly in our faith. Jeremiah contrasts those who put their trust in themselves with those who trust in God. The latter are like healthy trees with deep roots and a constant water supply, never in danger of drying up or dying. The psalmist uses the same image to describe those who meditate on God’s teachings. Thus, as you do these daily readings and reflect on them, you are sinking deep roots into fertile soil. Agricultural imagery is continued in Paul’s letter. Paul describes Jesus Christ risen in the flesh as the first fruit, meaning that he is the first of many who will be resurrected. In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, worldly success is not necessarily an indication of God’s blessing.
Read Jeremiah 17:5-10. Examine your heart. Do you place your trust in “mere mortals” or in the Lord?
Read Psalm 1. How do you seek to meditate on God’s word day and night?
Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. How has your understanding of the resurrection of the dead changed your living?
Read Luke 6:17-26. How do you hold together the paradoxes of Jesus’ blessings and woes?
Respond by posting a prayer.
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