12th Sunday after Pentecost:

 

God seeks what has gone by.

(Ecclesiastes 3:15)

 Last week, we repeated our summer stay at the Kinser Kabin. For near fifty years, we have spent summer days there—a tradition too precious to let go. So, once again, we made our way to the cabin that brings us such comfort and delight.

 One of those Greeks said something like “No one can ever step in the same river twice” (Heraclitus of Ephesus, 500BC—I looked it up). His point being that though it may be the same river, things have changed—like the water that flows and the one who steps into it. I thought of this—the same Truckee River our families rafted down, but not the same; the same Lake we rollicked about in, but not the same; the same Tahoe Cabin we filled with joy and laughter, but not the same.

 Ecclesiastes laments how “A generation goes, and a generation comes; but the earth remains the same” (1:4). Like all Biblical laments, one finds rays of the Gospel shining through: “God seeks what has gone by.” Maybe what has “gone by” is not lost. Maybe eternity is something like every good and joyous thing repeated only this time bigger and more real. Maybe all our youthful delights are redeemed and freed up for eternity. And maybe, even though we didn’t know it, we were simply tasting something of the bliss that awaits us in Glory.