I want to give you an image to see yourself through in these strange and increasingly difficult times: a pilgrim. Now, when you hear that word, your mind may jump to the Mayflower ship filled with Puritans arriving on the East Coast. These were indeed pilgrims, but that's not the image I have in mind. In the literal sense, a pilgrim is one who is on a religious journey to a sacred land. If you were to travel to Jerusalem out of religious devotion, that would be considered a pilgrimage. But still, that's not the image I have in mind.
The image I have in mind is the metaphor of a pilgrim, one who sees their life as a journey Godward, not knowing what may come, but knowing where they’re going, and trusting the hand of God to get them there.
The image of a pilgrim is useful because our understanding of God is necessarily limited and finite, subject to our own sinful biases, desires, and affections. Therefore, we are to be marked by humility and thankfulness, seeking to understand the God who has called us to follow the way of the cross, and yet realizing that our understanding of God will remain limited in this life.
The Christian pilgrim is one who travels with conviction, who worships "on the way", who grieves their losses and grasps their gains, and whose forward movement is a testament to the magnetic grace of God calling them onward. One who travels in company, great or small, noticing the path that other pilgrims have tracked ahead of them, and sees themselves as one small footprint in a grand congregation of travelers.
We don't know what's around the next bend. We sure didn't see this coming. But we know, as the hymn “Amazing Grace” below so beautifully captures, that God is really the one guiding us home to Him:
Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come;
Tis Grace that brought us safe thus far
and Grace will lead me home.
[ The Stations of the Cross trail behind New Day Nichols is open starting this Sunday, April 5. I invite you to walk it, and have the image of Jesus’ pilgrimage to the cross in your mind, and your pilgrimage to follow in His steps. ]