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Saturday

January 11


Walking with God


     Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden.  This story
stimulates my imagination.  A lush, warm wilderness; a path among
trees and vines heavy with hanging fruit; conversation among those who
loved and trusted each other; the other animals there, unafraid and at
peace with each other.  Later, in the patrarchal stories, we are told
that Abraham walked with God.  Now there is the hard call to leave
home, strike out across the harsh desert to a new land.  But Abraham
trusts, and with God's companionship brings the Hebrew people to the
Promised Land.  Still later, we are told that Elijah "walked with God
and was no more."  No story of Elijah's death, no tradition of his
burial place.  Just God's unending companionship out of life.
Centuries later, Micah's supurb poem declares that all God requires of
us is to "love justice, practice mercy and walk humbly with your God."

   In these stories, walking with God is a metaphor for keeping close to
his requirements and to his person: obedience, trust, and
companionship.  In the Gospels, the disciples literally walk with
Christ along the shores of the Sea of Galilee and the paths of
Galilee and the road to Jerusalem and the cross.  It still involves
obedience, trust, and companionship, but it also involves healing the
sick, feeding the hungry, accepting the outcast.  And we are commanded
to do likewise in obedience and trust and with the assurance of his
companionship.

Dear God of all peoples, your companionship makes our obedience a joy.
May we always walk with you.  Amen

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