I have an issue with a certain Biblical metaphor – the idea that the path of life is straight. (The narrow part, well, I guess I can live with that.) Nothing about my life’s path seems straight. In fact, it seems more like a giant hamster wheel sometimes. Lots of turns. Lots of flips. Lots of major drop-offs. This straight thing just doesn’t seem quite right to me.
When I was in college, one of my favorite professors, E. Morris Sider (we called him Emo, but not to his face, even though it was a term of great affection), asked our class to draw the way history looked. Our class decided it looked like a tumble weed. It moved forward but only slowly and only after rolling over on itself.
This seems about right to me. Living life is a recursive process. We have to go back again and again to certain things, certain lessons, and roll over ourselves again and again as we move forward in tiny bits.
It’s like the writing process. We brainstorm, we draft, we brainstorm some more and draft again. Then, we revise only to need more ideas and more drafting . . . RECURSIVE – we return, we run back because we didn’t get it right the first time.
So maybe the path is straight from where God sits. Maybe when God looks down at my life, God sees this perfectly straight line that is moving in just the right direction ultimately; in fact, I expect that’s exactly what God sees. And that gift of sight, well, that’s a miracle in itself because from where I sit the tumbleweed metaphor works best. But I suppose that’s the glory of God – to be able to see us for our best choices and endeavors. Can’t wait to see God’s vision for myself.