Been There And Will Keep Going There

So after doing the One Year Bible last year, I am going to instead spend time with just the Gospels this year.  I’ll be reading through the four Gospels each month.  I’m calling it a Year With Jesus.  I just finished Matthew yesterday and started into Mark this morning.  Thing is, I’ve been here before.  I’ve read these stories so many times before that it is easy to just skim and skip.  It is easy to think that I already know what is there for me or that the truths for me are just what I’ve already read in the past and not what I’ll be reading each day this year.  But here’s where I am grateful for the lessons of my dog, Scout.

There are quite a few days that we walk the same trails and paths.  The path that Scout and I walked yesterday morning and again this morning were exactly the same.  We went west from our house, walked up to the top of the 8th hole at the nearby golf course, walked down from there to a little path off to the grounds of a nearby convent, wandered around the prayer labyrinth, down to a strip mall parking lot, and then north up the main drag of our town until we returned to our street and back to the house.  2.5 miles.  Exact same yesterday as it was today.  Even the sunrises were remarkably similar.

But Scout’s nose was to the ground.  She was sniffing at things that were invisible to me.  She planted her paws at different points when a different scent called out to her.  New things were all around here even as we walked the same path.

I am taking inspiration from Scout as I move into the Gospel of Mark this week - what new things will I hear, will I find, as I read these stories I have read many times before and will read many times more?  The Spirit continues to speak.