Wandering

This is a wonderful painting. The wanderer is looking out over the engaging vista of what might happen and the unknown areas to be explored. However, there is also the realization that the wanderer is not facing the viewer. We don't know if his eyes are closed, or if he is hesitating in fear on the brink of the precipice instead of feeling exhilaration at the challenge ahead. For all we know, he is looking at the past and we are standing in the future; he may be turning away from us, trying to make sense of his history, and having no interest in the future at all!

I chose this picture because that is how I am feeling right now. I am starting a new semester full of promise of classes I expect to love and an engaging, exciting time of learning in a community of friends. On the other hand, I am looking back with just a bit of bittersweet, because a year ago I was packing my suitcases to move to London for a semester. That was one of the most fantastic experiences of my life, and I cannot help but wish that I could be going back this year.

The following lyrics are from "The Wanderers" by Lacy J. Dalton. I cannot help but feel right now that this picture, these lyrics, and the way my life seems right now somehow coincide. Where, exactly, I'm not sure yet.

Across the trackless wastes of space and time
Down through the eons we have come
The living river that our spirits ride
A shining bridge from sun to sun

Beyond the broad expanses of the galaxies
The ancient heavens brightly burn
And spanning light years we have crossed the cosmic seas
Through countless lifetimes we’ve returned

We are The Wanderers
Traveling from star to distant star
Purposely forgetting
What we were and who we are
Becoming one of you – As we were destined to
To bring the light to you
We are The Wanderers

Traveling the endless universe
Awakening your magic with our music and our verse
We are The Wanderers

Down through unnumbered ages
Through currents vast and deep
First a whisper then a roaring
We come to wake you
From your sleep

From far beyond the reaches of the brightest stars
The sacred circle was begun
The living words we sing are part of what we are
In everything and everyone

We are The Wanderers
Traveling from star to distant star
Purposely forgetting
What we were and who we are
Becoming one of you – As we were destined to
To bring the light to you
We are The Wanderers

Traveling the endless universe
Awakening your magic with our music and our verse

We are The Wanderers

Sometimes I think that wandering is viewed as a bad thing - something that proves a lack of purpose, or something being wrong. That reminds me of one of my favourite 'wandering' quotes, by JRR Tolkien:

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”

While the wandering is being done the end and/or the path cannot always be seen - like the wanderer looking out over a fog filled valley, or Sam and Frodo knowing that they must eventually come to Mount Doom but never having left the Shire before, much less traveled to Mordor. In the same way, I must go through life one step at a time: trusting God that I am making the right decisions, and that what I am doing is worthwhile and good. I can't always see the end - in fact, I rarely can. What I must do is trust God for my direction, then just go - and remember that wandering does not mean I am off the path. As the poet Robert Frost put it in his poem "The Road Not Taken",

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
and sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that, the passing there
had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
in leaves no feet had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference

This is a reminder to me that there is no reason to believe that the path God has laid out for me will be neatly blazed and easy to find, much less convenient to travel. One of my favorite wandering quotes is from the Bible, Hebrews 11:8-16:

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God...

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city."

Wander with confidence - while the path may not be worn and the destination shrouded with fog, we are not lost. We are on the way to our city.

We are wanderers.