When Alicia and I found out we were going to be parents we started praying for our unborn child. We prayed our baby would know God's love and share God's love with others. The thing we probably prayed most often is that our child would always sense God's adventure in their life.
Robert Frost described life as a journey. Rascal Flatts recently reminded us that life is a highway that is intended to be driven all night long (Someone needs to explain that philosophical perspective to me. Is it better to drive only at night or is it that when we are going to drive for 12 hour stretches that night driving is best?). Our Constitution says that life is our God-given right and that we should have the freedom to pursue happiness.
I've recently been reading Karen H. Jobes commentary on the book of Esther. In her commentary Jobes discusses the unique nature of Esther in the Bible. The book does not mention the name of God nor does it mention prayer. Still, in what seems like the absence of God, amazing things happen in this historic account. God is present in amazing ways even though He is not listed among the cast of characters. The story is immensely powerful. So much so, Jews imprisoned in concentration camps during WWII would recite the entire book of Esther from memory. This bothered German soldiers to the extent that they forbade them from reciting the story because of the message it carried with it. Jobes used an interesting word to describe what happens in Esther's powerful story. She calls it Peripety.
I had never heard this word before so I looked it up to see exactly what meaning she was trying to convey. Peripety is when something totally unexpected happens seemingly out of nowhere. In Esther's case, right when you think all of the Jews are going to be killed, God uses Mordecai and Esther to save His People. That is peripety. As I looked up this word I found out that the history of this word actually carries with it the idea of adventure. After all, aren't the best adventures filled with unexpected things around every corner?
Alicia and I continue to pray for our son Zeke that he would always sense God's adventure in His life. Today, that's my pray for me and for you. That we would see God's adventure. That we would experience His Peripety in our lives. That just when we feel like He has abandoned us or that He is far from us that He would reveal himself in powerful ways.
Whether your life is a journey, a highway, or a pursuit, may you always sense His Adventure.
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