A couple of years ago, I was so excited to get snow shoes. Truth be told, I just love a good adventure, going out and trying new things.  I love doing things I have never tried before, and at that moment the adventure was snow shoes. 

Now as a sport, you don’t  just use snow shoes.  The conditions have to be right, and for this reason I had waited quiet some time to go on my first snow shoe hike.  The waiting made the adventure even sweeter and so I was beyond ready the day we got the right mixture of snow.  There was one negative before me however, the temperature.  It was coming in at a frigid -16, so appropriate dress was necessary.  But at that temp, I was given an additional opportunity, take the snowdog with, Lucy, our lovely Saint Bernard.  This was an adventure for her also with a heritage from the Alps.  So we packed up and headed out to our local park where the conditions would be best.

What a great twenty minutes!   Twenty minutes out walking around as compared to the thirty minutes to get ready and ten minute drive to the park.  But when you go out for an adventure it isn’t about quantity of time, but the quality that fills those moements.  For that day, the details included a 120 pound dog being so over joyed at her freedom to romp through blistering cold that she tripped me twice.    Her large paw planted unexpectedly on the back of my snow shoe creating a forward momentum comparable to  shoving a stick in the tire of a bike to get it to stop.  Falling is the only consequence.  Glad it was snow and not concrete. 

There were other obsticles also.  A significant hill.  I had walked the hill many times, but snow shoes are not the same especially if there is ice.  Then there was frost covered eyelashes for me and Lucy, well, the slobber Saint Bernards or famous for,  it was now solid.   But there  was also great joy.  The view over the valley in the crisp air was unexplainable, just breath taking, and not because it was cold   (Sorry no picture)

Together we made it work, we went out into the world unsure of what lay before us.  We fell.  We got back up.  We played.  We froze.  20 minutes is all it took to be reminded that going away from there (the place of comfort and warmth) is sometimes the best decision one will ever make, even if it seems completely and absolutely unreasonable. 

Jesus too goes out from there and into the world, not leaving behind one place but simply enjoying another,  evoking for us a sense of travel.  (Notice the words,”As he went from there,” Matthew 4:21-22) Jesus was on the move.   He was not a stationary object waiting for people to come find him.  He was active and on the go and to follow him (Blog post January 3, 22) was to be on the go also.  To follow was to take the brave chance of leaving behind comfort and going into the unknow.  Maybe the day would be filled with warmth and hope and promise as miracles unfolded.  Maybe the day would be blustery as you watched him whipped and crucified.  Maybe the day would be filled with new hope filling the void of his presence with resurrected new life.  Yes, Jesus was always on the move to take the message of God’s salvific promise into the world. 

• Thoughts to Ponder: 
• When was the last time you simply went from some place into an unknown adventure. 
• What did you learn?
• What did you learn about your relationship with God in that adventure? 

Let us pray:  Dear Lord,  move our feet  in the direction of proclaiming and living you love.  Let us not sit still to long without just cause, keeping us always focused on you and your call to follow me.  In Jesus name we pray.  Amen.