Hebrews 11:1-3. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible … ”
Tonight I sit by the river preparing for the unworldly show in the night sky, tonight the meteor splendour will be at its peak and I long to see what I rarely see, a splash of God’s mystery move across our universe.
Tonight we will set up cameras in the hope that the sky will be cloudless and we can capture a glimpse of the majesty that we do not control and often do not understand.
As we wait for the sun to surrender to the night, it bursts one more time behind the hills and the river is bathed in the last of summer’s rays, softening all that it touches.
In a burst of song, I hear the variety of birds that have graced my summer: cedar waxwings, killdeer, meadowlarks, chickadees, robins, hummingbirds, flickers, and today grosbeaks.
Geese fly in formation up the river reminding me that autumn is quickly approaching and this amazing summer will soon be over. Deer wander through the field, with fawns sprinting behind them and it feels like we are on the cusp of seasons, waiting for the tip into a different reality.
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” All spring and summer I have watched and listened to what nature has presented to me, the squeaking of chipmunks, the non-stop work of ants preparing for harder times and the diligence of parental birds as they search for food for their young.
No matter how hard I look, I have never found a hummingbird nest nor stumbled across a den of coyotes, these are things not seen … but hoped for. Faith that even if I do not see it happening life continues to leap forward in ways I do not understand yet yearn to be a part of.
I take great comfort from the fact that there is a power greater than I know that works in places that I can’t see from birds and ants to deer and people.
– Rev. Kim Horwood is pastor of the United Church of Canada’s Boundary Pastoral Charge, including St. John’s United Church in Grand Forks.