Tigers and Snakes

September 16 2009

The other night, before we left on our current journey to Pune, India, I encountered a snow white tiger . I know it was a dream, but it felt more real than not. In this dream but I had to go over snowy boulders in an ATV with Bethyl. We were on the way to a church.

At one point the road was so obstructed by frozen boulders that I got out of the car to check the path. As I climbed over a big boulder I met this tiger several times my size, low to the ground, stalking towards me. I was not afraid of him, even though he was long, powerful, and sleek. I brushed past him and he gave a little roar of distress. I looked closer. There was a little black poisonous snake burrowed into his back right above his tail. I knew he needed help. He was sensitive there, pained, but not able to get to it by himself. I wasn’t sure what to do. I’m not a vet. But for such a time as this?.....

As I think about this dream it seems to me now that the tiger is a symbol of the church to which we are being sent to minister: powerful, white as snow--and infected with sin. It also could be me that is the tiger, or the little band of friends pictured here, Bethyl and I, Wayne and Meg. However it may be, together the body of Christ is needed to care for and root out evil within one another-- wherever it burrows in and can’t be reached. I can’t let this just slip by without my attention, care, and help.

Departure Moves

9/15/09
Our Singapore Air 747 lifted off at LAX this afternoon at 3:06, about the same time that our friend, Meg, lifted off for eternity. Wayne called us from the ER where he was holding his unconscious wife’s head as she bled to death internally in her own decent way, with dignity in her death. She really showed us how to finish well, and for that, as well as showing us how to live well before the finish, we love you, Meg, and hold you close in our hearts.

Meg was happy even into this morning when she left a message for Bethyl—And, there was just an edge of terror in her voice as she cliff-walked along the high bridge of her dreams three days earlier. She realized in this dream that it was Jesus himself over which she was passing, or that it was Him holding her as she crossed over. Looking down all she could see was mist, but she sensed it was very deep. Another dream from a few days ago had her inside a polished log being guided down a river by unseen Hands. The railings inside this log were secure and Jesus also was with her as she made her way long the protective interior of the log, knowing she was in transit on a journey of a most important sort.

God bless her. She knew at some level her crossing was close. Yet when her daughter gave her permission to let go when she needed, just a day or so ago, she was surprised—thinking that this was entirely too precipitous and her time was not yet close. Knowing Tara had initiated this with her Mom, as she and I spent our final 90” together, I also shared the preciousness of being her friend, saying I felt I must say this now lest I not have the opportunity later. We shared tears… appreciation for how our paths had intersected and woven themselves into a sturdy friendship.

Meg is on her way. We are on ours. Both journeys of moment. But hers is inestimably joyous, and ours a blend of joy and responsible vision-casting as we search for our next chapter. Both of us are crossing spans. Both are contained within the grip of the Almighty. Thank you our dear Father for your carefulness with each of us as the future has come to greet us. For Meg, in the eternal now; for us, at the rate of 60 seconds in each minute we breathe our way along the path God has set for us.