MORE

MORE

Friday, November 23, about 7:45 am,

It is the day after a perfect Thanksgiving.  Perfect because all our children, grandchildren, and surviving parents were at the table thanking God for their greatest blessing.  Perfect because a neighbor was kind enough to come to our home and take a family photograph. Perfect because every prayer of gratitude centered not on the things of this world but upon the special blessings found in relationships.

I had no idea that a special answer to those prayers would be harvested the following day during a short paddle down the Trinity River.  The two sons who were able to stay the night and I cast off at the Highway 59 boat ramp under a Canadian sky. The temperature is cool but not cold, helped by the absence of a strong wind.  Together we able to soak in our surroundings within the privacy of separate canoes: a shared experience, experienced in three separate ways, open to breaking the silence to gift fellow travelers with a broader awareness.

The river is high, wide, swift, but offers no danger other than the always present possibility of getting wet.  Life is filled with peace surrounded by the wonder of God’s creation. The gray sky provides the backdrop for small V-shaped formations of Green-winged Teal, Gadwell, and other fowl migrating south.  Spectacular, because of their size, we are treated to a flock of white pelicans, whose presence should impress the Blue Angels.

Joshua, paddling closer to the left bank, first hears and then spies a wild boar and a sow, nosing their way along the bank.  His quiet alert enables us to share what is a first for me while paddling.  A short time later Jared, draws our attention to the highest branch of the tallest leafless tree, where a Bald Eagle in perfect posture is perched motionlessly surveys his surroundings.  Suddenly, it is like God reaches down from heaven for a family hug whispering, “You are special.” For the three of us, the hour and a half canoe ride was a most profound moment of our Thanksgiving feast, because it added eternity to a shared love we were already willing to live and die for.

Later, I reflected upon the mystery that we did not see another human being.  Indeed I rarely see a human being while canoeing. Maybe people do not know we are in the middle of the central migration pathway of North America. I realize it takes extra effort to get up early, load up the canoes and gear, travel to the boat ramp, and retrieve the pickup and trailer.  You can count on getting your shoes muddy and pushing your muscles pulling the canoes up the bank. If people only knew how these discomforts, become joys when immersed in the grace of that which has no beginning or end.

Although we are saved by grace through faith, it seems God blesses those who go to the effort of searching.  That search might be an honest time of fasting, a sacrificial gift, a devoted quest to appropriate God’s Word, or a repetitive investment of time in meditation and prayer.  If you, or you and a group would like to share a canoeing experience, searching for a personal experience with God, please call me at 713-845-6595.

Darwood Galaway