Watchmen and Pathfinders

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. – Matthew 24:36-44 (ESV) emphasis added

It is pretty easy to be thinking about floods after three or four consecutive days of heavy rains. My wife said that Poplar Bluff is being evacuated which made me laugh, since Poplar Bluff is located on – help me out – a BLUFF. Nevertheless, there are people who live somewhat lower down and the Black River is overflowing its levee, though, at last check, the levee had not been breached (update: the levee has broken downriver from town). People from the flood plain of the Black and folks who were cut off by street flooding were being evacuated by boat. We have flash-flooding. Roads are closed. There’s water over the highways. The weirdest thing is that one area nearby is a good 1200 feet above sea level, but it is really a very large diameter, relatively shallow sinkhole. The only place for water to go is down into the substrata. Normally the ground will absorb the rain as fast as it falls, but occasionally the water backs up as is the case now.

Back in the hills there are a lot of small roads with low-water crossings. In the days of my childhood, those normally dry washes were bridged by structures made mostly of wood. Spring run-off would, as often as not, wash them out. Going home from somewhere one night, Mom, Dad, and I in the Chevy pickup came to a spot where the water was over the road in a boiling, rushing stream draining from the high lands. Even my inexperienced eye knew the little culvert could not be under more than a foot of water -- if it was there, which was the question. The headlights bounced off the murky flow and could not tell us what lay beneath. We weren’t going to die if we drove off in it, but we would be thoroughly stuck four quarters from the house. Dad was wearing brogans and bibs as usual. Mom had on a dress that fell probably mid-calf, pumps and no stockings. Dad said to her, “Why don’t you take your shoes off and wade out there? See if that culvert’s washed out.”

I should point out that Mom never wore shoes at all if she didn’t have to, so taking off her shoes and walking down a gravel road did not intimidate her. However, she could not swim a stroke and had a phobic dread of any body of water bigger than a bathtub. As best I recall, Mom did not suggest that Dad test the bridge himself, which is what one would expect these days. She crawled out of the cab and, shoeless, padded up to the edge of the water, black below the yellowish fall of the truck lights. Cautiously, she stepped into the overflow, her feet alternating anchor and point, fathoming the occult floor. I half-expected her to drop out of sight and be swept into the field below, but she reached the far side without incident and stood, casting a long shadow in the headlamps, waiting for us to drive across the torrent.

I’m not sure that has anything to do with the text, but I like the story.

We know that prayer is important, and prayer is often associated with watching. What is watching? It is being awake and alert, keeping an eye on things, maintaining the fire, singing to the herd or guarding the flock. When we are not secured behind strong walls and locked doors having someone on alert is a pretty good idea. We may be citizens of the City of God; however, we find ourselves traveling through the wilderness at times. Even in the Master’s house, we must be on guard for [t]he thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10), and constant vigilance is our only protection against such predations.

When watching, the important thing is not to allow the mind to wander or to be captured by the random thoughts the thief may throw like pebbles to draw us away into the shadows. The discipline of maintaining focus is essential, but we need not be discouraged by lapses. Like all disciplines it must be practiced to be perfected.

I have heard people speculate that the veil of this world gets thin as the third watch ends and the fourth begins around three hundred hours by the clock. The eyes that are open in those dark hours may pierce the murk of rippling, rushing illusions and confusions. Perhaps it is not that the veil is thinner; rather, we may possess a usually dormant sense that awakens, a spiritual sense that pierces the darkness and knows the truth of the unseen.

It is easy in these challenging times, when troubles and trials seem to rain down upon us, to be discouraged, to get stuck in or to be swept away by incessant streams of bad news, torrents of lies and deception. It is often hard to remember there is a reality beneath, a bridge that we can trust even if we can’t see it. Sometimes we need someone to step out onto that bridge and show us the way. Sometimes we need to be the ones who step out.