by Pastor Adam White
“Even the stork in the heavens knows its times; and the turtledove, swallow, and crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord.” – Jeremiah 8:7
I grew up in Hastings, Nebraska, just south of where the Sandhill Cranes make their annual pilgrimage on the Platte River. Yearly we would trek out with our binoculars to the adjacent fields, voyeuristically spying on the birds’ liturgical dance on the sandbars. These birds knew the time and the season. Perhaps our fascination with these birds is rooted in the reality that we do not.
Jeremiah is baffled by this, too: the birds can discern the times and the seasons, but humans get it wrong. Always. When called to repent, we did not, but ran forward like a warhorse committed to our cause. When God came in Jesus Christ, we did not know the time and season. When God gave everything freely, humanity took everything by force, by the cross.
O God Revealed on the Cross, crucify our petulant desire to cut our own ways, and raise us to new life. In death and resurrection help us to live within the grain of your creation. Amen.
