Nancy Becker's Reflections

For many people, summer is a time for traveling.    One of the joys of my childhood was the summer family camping trips that we went on every summer.  My father loved the adventure of the open road, and so we often spent the winters planning our summer camping trips.   We left our home in Detroit, our Mercury station wagon loaded with two adults and four kids, pulling a one-wheeled trailer that carried our tent and camping gear.

One year, we went east to the tip of Maine where I first discovered the taste of lobsters fresh out of the Atlantic Ocean. Another year, we went south to New Orleans and visited sites of the Civil War on the way. Our last big trip was to Montana through Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone Park.

The trips were carefully planned, and we covered a lot of miles, but we always traveled a different set of highways going out and coming home. So, the trips were always circular. The road, however far we went, always led home.

The Apostle Paul lived a very nomadic life after his life-changing encounter with the Risen Christ. He spent the rest of his time on earth traveling through the nations surrounding the Mediterranean Sea teaching of the freedom and redemption that comes with knowing the resurrection of Christ and putting one’s trust and one’s life in Christ. Paul was relentless in his determination to share the Good News of the abundant life available to followers of Jesus. 

He wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians “we know that while were at home in the body we are away from [the fulness of life] in the Lord. For we walk by faith and not by sight…So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” (2 Corinthians 5(6-9)

Paul knew that at the end of his traveling, at the end of his life journey, he would arrive at his ultimate home in the presence of the Lord. 

Christian poet T.S. Eliot wrote: “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” Eliot’s words go to the heart of the Christian faith.

As Christians we believe that all life comes from God and that one day, in some form or fashion, each of us will return to Him. Is it not as Eliot suggests? The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and although we may have some understanding of that place, it will be like discovering it for the first time.

We believe in the fundamental reality of the journey of life and of its destination. We know that we are on our way to that place from which we have come -- to the full presence of God. We all experience curves and dead ends and open highways as we draw close to God -- and then veer away again and again. But always, throughout that journey, we are in the care and guidance of God, who leads us step by step ever nearer to Himself.

Enjoy your summer traveling as a part of your journey of life in God’s care.

Pastor Nancy Becker

Parish Associate