Acadia Part 1 - Hope and Breath

"Church" by the shore in Acadia National Park

Goodness, I have no idea how I am going to share photos from our time this week in Acadia National Park.  I went through the 300 or so keeper photos thus far (and we still have two full days to go) and I pulled out like 60 photos...But I’ll start with this.  Two moments from Sunday morning.  Of course, I was out early and there were two moments that felt like church to me.

The first was this tree.

This tree that stood about 2 feet tall and was rooted in a crack in this rock on the shore.  This wasn’t the only tree that I’ve seen like this here but there was something about this one.  This one that was out there with the best view of the sunrise every morning and who somehow, some way was able to begin to grow and thrive even in the most seemingly of inhospitable of soil.  Who knows how many other seeds tried to grow there and for one reason or another were unable to take root.  But this one did.  This one took root and has grown to be this beautiful small tree with a sunrise view every morning.

This summer, I reflected a lot on hope rooted in MaryAnn McKibben Dana’s book, Hope: A User’s Manual.   I sent the following to MaryAnn with a few iPhone photos of this tree.

Good morning friend...Look at this amazing tree here in Acadia. It’s rooted in a crack in the rock. It’s got the best view every day.  says to me, Hope.  Courage.  Strength.

MaryAnn replied, “Love this.  A visual parable for our times.”

There’s so much to this.  It speaks of how hope can seem like this tiny, fragile thing (like a seed) that has no chance of growing into something bigger.  And yet, it can.  And yet, it does.  It gets blown by the winds.  It gets hammered by the waves.  It faces storms that roll through.  And yet, it is rooted and it somehow continues to grow.

But I also thought about the soil here.  Jesus has a parable about a sower throwing seeds in the craziest of ways - not just on “good” soil but anywhere and everywhere.  The parable speaks to me about God’s insane generosity but also about not giving up on where the seed lands.  We can’t give up on the rocky soil or the place that seems to be filled with weeds.  You never know what might begin to grow or what needs to be seen amongst the rocks or the weeds to be given the space to grow.

As I said, that was a Sunday morning and it really was church for me out there.  Shortly before the moment with the tree was coming to a space of just beautiful breathing along the shore.  I stopped and sat down and just took in the moment.  I did set up my phone to record and here’s a LONG video of what I experienced.   

There was no one else around, there were no noises of cars or anything else, there was just this beautiful space.  But what really connected was how it felt like I was seeing creation breathe in front of me.   

There is the gentle movement of the waves into the shore but there were two smaller spots in particular - one in the bottom left of the video and one in the bottom right.  Two small areas that looked like the water and the plants and the rocks breathing in and breathing out.  It reminded me of a sermon I shared a few months back about how our breath is connected to the breathing of everything else - the ways that our breath syncs when we sing together, the way that nature breathes, the way that the universe does it, the way that the ruach (Hebrew for breath and spirit) of God infuses all of creation.  So, if you need some stillness, just put the video below to full screen, sit back, and receive this moment.

And if you listen really really closely, you’ll hear the bell of a buoy somewhere in the viscidity whose bell rang out a few times.  Felt like the bells of that “church” ringing out in…

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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