We have spoken about story as something to be entered with imagination. We've spoken of memorizing it, then sitting in stillness, closing our eyes, and imagining it; by “coming to our senses” making it real. Have you ever watched a one-year-old child that is content and awake? They are like intake machines, covered with sensors. They reach out to probe, pull things close to inspect them with their eyes, and often enough, yup, into their mouths, where that sensitive tongue can gather data. They look from face to face as conversations are happening, listening, comparing the sound of the voice with the expression of the face, the posture of the body. The child is sensing, processing, sensing some more.
Please enter this story and observe the gardener. Two days ago we have spent time considering the tree, and yesterday the landowner. Today let’s turn our senses to this person, this woman or man who wants to save the tree. The landowner is the boss; the gardener has diplomatically but assertively taken a stand between the owner and the tree, showing courage. Look at the gardener’s hands. Look at the way the gardener stands facing the owner. As the owner turns to walk away, look at the expression on the gardener’s face. And now the gardener approaches the tree. Watch the actions of the gardener, the hands, the movements of the body as s/he attends to the tree, care-fully inspecting it, moving around it looking, touching, smelling. Consider the gardener now beginning to respond to what is observed. Watch the gardener’s hands as you imagine the work s/he does, softening the dirt around the tree, perhaps fertilizing, certainly watering. What do you hear while this is going on? Do you hear the shovel cutting the earth, the splash of water? Do you hear the exertion of the gardener? And now the gardener has finished the day’s work with the tree. Watch the gardener looking at the tree before turning, returning home. Watch the gardener walking away, posture and gait; listen to the sound of the foot-falls on the earth.
The gardener turns and looks at you! How do you feel with this? Looking at the gardener’s face as you find yourself sitting; a conversation begins. What are you saying to the gardener? What is the gardener’s voice like, the gardener’s hand gestures and bodily posture as you converse? How do you feel as you spend time with the gardener? Have you had a similar feeling during the last day, the last week? What was happening then? Spend some time with that feeling, in the experience that gave it to you; let it take you in….
This is a story that you can enter anytime. It is easy to remember, and the characters are so simple and clear. Can you see the good sense that Jesus had in telling it? What does this tell you about this Jesus, who we accompany on this gradually steepening walk these next thirty days? Is the story good for you to hear, to enter? Why? Why not? If you were not able to take the time to enter it just now, please come back to it sometime today, tomorrow, Sunday. If you were able to get into it, consider coming back, re-entering it, discovering what happens this second time. In this Good Story, take off your shoes; you are standing on holy ground. Feel the soil between your toes. What does the story tell you about yourself? What is touched inside you?
Tomorrow - connecting Story and Examen
FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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