Tuesday of Week 30 in Ordinary Time
It grew and became a large shrub and birds of the air nested in its branches.
Yesterday I heard the story of Thomas Dorsey (not Tommy) a musician that got religion and became a great hymn writer and church musician. He was in St Louis for a week-end church gig when his wife, back home in Chicago gave birth. The telegram said, "You have a son." Then the next line, "Your wife has died. Come home." Then there was the gathering and the grief. And more death. A seemingly healthy son soon dies.
Where does one go when the home is no longer the home? The story goes that Thomas Dorsey didn't write anything for a long while until he stopped by a studio where he had recorded many times before. He stopped and he wrote and he recorded. He wrote his psalm, Precious Lord. His walk in the wilderness led him home. Not triumphant…but tired and weak and worn.
Precious Lord doesn't have answers…just yearning and longing. But not homeless anymore. The kingdom of God, a home, a nest, a shelter, where life's troubling questions can be set down; where the questioner can rest even without answers.
Some are kicked into the wilderness by trouble…
Others are pushed and prodded…
Others go kicking and screaming…
But the wilderness seems to be a must?
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