All my bags are packed.

Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, 'Peace be with you,' and, after saying this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord, and He said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.' John 20:19-22

How good it is to sing praises to our God! How pleasant it is to honor Him with praise! He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars and calls them all by their names. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; there is no limit to His wisdom. Psalm 147:1-4

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. Hosea 6:3

I am feeling very sent.

And if I follow on to know the LORD then He shall come unto me as the rain. As the rain upon the earth, soaking and healing and producing fruit.

And Dre sent me a poem yesterday.

Camino, by David Whyte

The way forward, the way between things,
the way already walked before you,
the path disappearing and re-appearing even
as the ground gave way beneath you,
the grief apparent only in the moment
of forgetting, then the river, the mountain,
the lifting song of the Sky Lark inviting
you over the rain filled pass when your legs
had given up, and after,
it would be dusk and the half-lit villages
in evening light; other people's homes
glimpsed through lighted windows
and inside, other people's lives; your own home
you had left crowding your memory
as you looked to see a child playing
or a mother moving from one side of
a room to another, your eyes wet
with the keen cold wind of Navarre.

But your loss brought you here to walk
under one name and one name only,
and to find the guise under which all loss can live;
remember you were given that name every day
along the way, remember you were greeted as such,
and you needed no other name, other people
seemed to know you even before you gave up
being a shadow on the road and came into the light,
even before you sat down with them,
broke bread and drank wine,
wiped the wind-tears from your eyes;
pilgrim they called you again. Pilgrim.

Which led me to spend a lot of time with Mr. Whyte this morning. And Ten Questions that Should Never Go Away is now tucked neatly onto my iPhone.

And being reminded by Ann Voskamp yesterday, I am taking 31 days of A.W. Tozer with me as well: The continuous and unembarrassed interchanged of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion. 

Last night at community group Scott Thompson told a story of being called upon unexpectedly to preach in Kenya or somewhere, and he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a Our Daily Bread and added a few sincere embellishments, and it was just fine.

And likewise I remember one time when I was asked to be the main speaker at a women’s retreat, and my dad was a little puzzled as to what I would say, and his advise was to just read A.W. Tozer and to teach that. So all summer I carried around The Pursuit of God and what a rich summer it was indeed. I can exactly remember the light on Pamela and Jon’s back porch as I drank down his wisdom, along with glass after glass of minted iced tea. And here I am at yet another summer and I will once again tuck The Pursuit of God into my red shoulder bag, and when it is all done, I hope to find myself once again on that back porch in Vermont celebrating Pamela’s new citizenship with lots of fireworks.

Time is a river indeed.

But most of all, as I finish up the to do lists today, the getting a second key for the car, the packing of the bike box, and the borrowing of Everette for my last visit with Uncle Jim because she is the  darling of all of the Saturday lunch crowd at the senior living complex, most of all are the words of my beloved Savior.

And He said to them again, Peace be with you.

And As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.