THE PLANNED LIFE
Matthew 4: 21 – 22.
” Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee , preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him”.
THE PLANNED LIFE
A couplet in Robert Browning’s poem
‘ Rabbi Ben Ezra’ seems unreal to many whose
present experiences reveal different truths.
“Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, ‘A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be
afraid!”
From the annals of everyday living, some people must include painful evidence in their saga of ageing experiences far removed from the category of the best for any human. To associate such experience as part of the whole plan for one’s life is a seeming anathema.
Consider a work by another poet, William Wordsworth. The pastoral poem ‘Michael ‘ is about an ageing Shepherd named Michael. He is a humble, hard-working man with a modest income. He lives in a simple cottage with his wife and only son, Luke, who is the ageing father’s absolute pride and joy. Luke is also his father’s trusted and irreplaceable co-worker, the future heir of the sheep farm. Diligently, they are working together, building a new sheepfold for days of coming prosperity. But misfortune, unannounced comes instead.
A situation arose, making it necessary to dispose of many assets, and for Luke to leave home to help relieve the worsening situation. But in time, Luke falls into disrepute, thereby never to return home, thus leaving his ageing parents to permanently live alone.
Wordsworth succinctly captures their ever present heartache by reflecting upon the unfinished sheepfold:
“Tis not forgotten yet
The pain which was then in every heart
For the old man, and tis believed by all,
That many , and many a day he thither went,
And never lifted up a single stone.”
” The best is yet to be?” Is this the whole life plan for Michael,his wife and for Luke?
A similar incident in Scripture reflects the possibility of similar heart-wrenching consequences.
Zebedee, a fisherman from whom the independence of youth is fleeing, is in a boat with his two sons, James and John, preparing their nets. Without a prior indication the eldest of the three becomes abandoned, sitting there, a lone figure
I grew up in a rural fishing village that rewarded me with evidence of the sea’s mysterious grip on many ‘who do business upon the mighty deep’. Even the ownership of various paraphernalia once used by fishermen in the loving conquest of the sea’s treasures remains as prised trophies to them.
It is likely the seed germinating in the narrative where Zebedee sits in his boat with his two sons, mending fishing gear he is destined never to need again.
This very scene stirs deep memories in my own soul. I vividly remember sitting at the waterfront with one well-seasoned, both in years and experience. Together, we watched boats put back to sea. My childish mind could never comprehend the real tears running down my old hero’s cheeks, as we listened to the haunting sound of the boat’s engines fade into the distance. That day, I experienced the first inescapable pull of the boundless deep.
There is, however, one distinct feature in the unfolded Zebedee saga that sets it apart from the former poetic expressions. Here, against the background of a threatening life changing event for Zebedee stands the only One who enables God’s plan for completing the story of every human life.
One abiding truth our glorious religion deals with is the spiritual dimension of humankind. “Time like an ever-rolling stream” may deposit us on the shores of yesterday’s journey. If this becomes our destiny, may we be blessed to see the One who weaves everything that happened to us , past and present, into the pattern of personal wholeness. For Zebedee, may the scene of his two sons, James and John in company with Jesus be the catalyst that moves his own life to completeness. Then, at the end, he also, enters with them into Eternal Glory. And so may we all!
“Youth shows but half; trust God, see all, nor be afraid!
A prayer To Follow This Meditation
Father,
When unpredictable events threaten to take hostage the pursuit of some beloved labour, and the world mocks us with the images of what might have been in the years now fled, in your mercy, stand beside us.
Show us how to be grateful for what has been and make us strong now,to live by faith that the ” Master Weaver” many times uses darker threads to make the finished product something of extreme beauty. You are not finished with us when the spring in our steps abandons us.
When in faith, we see You standing beside us grant us the wisdom to know that in Your company the “Best” is always yet to be! Our Prayer we make in Jesus Name. Amen
https://youtu.be/ekUELQCnQlM?si=pP9BCXnBY2glkVwj