Pilgrimage

My friend invited me to go on a pilgrimage for Good Friday. I accepted and began to prepare- carefully choosing what I would wear and carry- preparing for a moving, quiet, spiritual experience. I arranged for my children to stay home so that I could go and spend time connecting with God.

When I got there, out to the mountain desert above Santa Fe in the pre-dawn morning, we began with prayer and then began walking to the little mountain chapel. Soon our group was surrounded by a group of Middle School boys- noisy and energetic and bouncing off one another as they swapped music and talked about girls. I was jarred and a little frustrated- what was going on? Where was my spiritual experience?

I continued down the road, using walking meditation to try to get closer to God- trying to block out the noise and chaos, surrounded by thousands of people and being served oranges and water by hundreds of different families and churches, people carrying wooden crosses next to families with little kids running around. Everyone laughing and catching up with one another. And it finally it came to me, I was close to God.  Jesus was with us in the crowd, and this is what it looked like. Jesus had showed up and he was walking with us, swapping music and greetings, catching up with old friends and cousins and being fed by the hospitality of strangers. The loud, chaotic crowd reminded me that the Holiness of God is not just for a mountain glen and a quiet chapel- the holiness of God is with us in the middle of our busy, chaotic lives.

Sometimes as parents, our time with God can feel a lot more like that busy crowd than the quiet, contemplative, stained glass moments of stillness that we might be longing for. It’s my prayer for all of us as we approach Easter morning, and we ask God to renew our faith, that we see the Holy Spirit blowing among us, and working in the midst of our lives. It tells us in the Bible that Jesus was born as a child so that he could walk with us and live with us. I think that the crowded pilgrimage reminds us that Jesus continues to show up and walk around in our neighborhood- walking with us in the busy season of parenthood. 

-Rev. Deborah Huggins