Sign Posts

I have loved CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia for over half a century (yes, I am old).

Lately, I have been particularly drawn to certain narrative elements of The Silver Chair.

The conditions of the enchantment of the Prince and Aslan’s signs—

How does a person wake up from a deadly delusion? How do the people around them help to “break the enchantment?”

And what are the signs we begin to forget in the castle of our besetting giants?

Jesus gives us all we need to navigate through the end of the world or an ordinary Tuesday.

Know the signs

And know the wonders too.

Matthew 24:4-46 KJV
[4] And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. [5] For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. [6] And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. [8] All these are the beginning of sorrows. [9] Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. [10] And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. [11] And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. [12] And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. [13] But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. [14] And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. [15] When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) [16] Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: [17] Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: [18] Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. [19] And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! [20] But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: [21] For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. [22] And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. [23] Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. [24] For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. [25] Behold, I have told you before. [26] Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. [27] For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [28] For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. [29] Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: [30] And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. [31] And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. [32] Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: [33] So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. [34] Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [35] Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. [36] But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. [37] But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [38] For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, [39] And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. [40] Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [41] Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. [42] Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. [43] But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. [44] Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. [45] Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? [46] Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Pareidolia

Within days of the end of an era I lay beneath a cloudy night sky and drew faces from slow moving clouds and stars and planets

I resisted the urge to cup your face in my hand or bang the flats of my palms against the heavy plate glass of the cathedral

Yell your name

But I had to

Had to

Had to

Touch the hem of your garment

Pray you turn and say my name

The Parables

Jesus knows that his beloved followers will need things to hold onto as they undergo the crushing persecution and ostracism of the first years (300ish) of Christianity.

So he gives them stories—stories so vivid and memorable and simple and beautiful that they can go back again and again to these stories to nourish them in the dark places they will find themselves in as followers of The Way.

The parable are rooms we can live in, stories we can inhabit, people and places and symbols we can return to again and again

As we wait in dark places

For the Return of the King.

Love Letters

Dearest,

You remember better than I do the letter I once wrote to the justletsbefriendsboy.

Not like you—so far out of my league—worlds wake at the sound of your voice.

I want to squish your check sideways and demand your attention like the petulant but well-meaning child I am and love—

Grandma!! Look!

How does one grasp the attention of the Eternal Beloved?

Surprisingly easily because you love us so.

A really good listener

I want more like Christmas morning

Waiting for your voice

In the House,

Love.

I teeter, I wobble

Never having impeccable balance

I swing between hope and chaos

One part of me veering toward extremes strangely reminiscent of sci-fi movies and teen melodrama—

Attempt to reproduce the metaphysical places that come to you in your dreams

Buy all the thrift store wedding dresses and parade about in them!

Become a true cave or island dweller…

I have become obsessive about the time

In Diomedes (big and little)

Howland and Baker Islands

He brings me rain to ease my heartbreak

And stories he has told with aplomb for millennia

A persistent widow

A mustard tree

A cry that goes out at midnight

And all those angels

Poised, always poised

To bring home those he loves

That Divine Motherboard

My father was a helicopter pilot. That meant that from a young age, I was familiar with what a helicopter cockpit looked like.

I remember distinctly being very young and having a nightly prayer sesh. I fully acknowledged (at that time) that God had A LOT of buttons and levers to man in order to keep the universe clicking.

He therefore could not be expected to respond personally to me.

Wrong.

Turns out He is Omni-everything and can respond to each individual supplicant while keeping breath in our lungs and making baby turtles adorable.

In fact, the opposite is true. It is not God who is too busy to respond to us, it is we who become too concerned with the buttons and levers of our busy lives to wrest the time from it all

To be still and know

That He is God

And we are loved

Beyond measure.

John 20 and 21