“Stay with us, till night has come: / Our praise to You this day be sung. / Bless our bread, / Open our eyes: / Jesus, be our great surprise.”- Stay with Us, Lutheran Service Book #879, v. 1
“And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”- Micah 6:8 (NIV)
The American White Pelican stands as one of the heaviest flying birds in the world. Superb soarers, the snowy white adults reveal their black flight feathers only when they spread their wings. Most significantly, the American White Pelican possesses the second-largest average wingspan of any North American bird (8-9.62 feet), after the California condor. In addition, these pelicans are up to 65 inches long and weigh between 10 and 20 pounds. The huge beak alone measures 11.3-15.2 inches.
Furthermore, unlike Brown Pelicans, the American White Pelican doesn’t plunge dive. Instead, it feeds from the surface of the water, dipping its beak to catch fish. Sometimes they work together in groups to herd fish into the shallows for easy feeding. Prone to overheat in the hot sun, the pelicans shed heat by turning away from the sun and fluttering their bill pouches. Many blood vessels in the pouch allow the heat to escape.
To our great surprise, we witnessed this magnificent pelican up close as the pontoon tour boat glided through the marsh. Writing in God Walk: Moving at the Speed of Your Soul (2020), Mark Buchanan describes walking as our most practiced human activity. Yet, we often take walking for granted or neglect it. It’s something we do between sitting. But walking enables us to encounter our great surprise, Jesus.
However, as writer Rebecca Solnit notes, we walk three miles an hour because that represents the speed of thought. And maybe the speed of our souls. Three miles an hour seems to be the pace God keeps. It’s God speed. In Three Mile An Hour God, Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama (1929-2009) echoed this thought. He wrote:
“God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would move much faster. Love has its speed. . . . It is slow and yet it is lord over all the other speeds since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depths of our life whether we notice it or not.”
Therefore, Mark views walking as about spiritual formation and spiritual discipline. Consequently, he asserts, when the Bible talks about walking in the Spirit or walking in the light or walking in truth, it means more than a figurative sense. New Testament writers like Paul and John walked everywhere, so they meant it equally in a literal way.
In conclusion, the Gospel of Luke tells the story of Cleopas and his companion, disciples of Jesus. Their walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus totaled around 7 miles. More than a two-hour walk at three miles an hour. Certainly, plenty of time to talk, plenty of time to think. As well as enough time to change your mind as Jesus turns your world upside down.
Later, when the Emmaus disciples sat at table with Jesus, they noted that ‘our hearts burned within us’ (Luke 24:32) transformed into ‘our great surprise.’ Nor did the long walk seem beside the point or wasted breath. Rather, the long walk served as preparation. And Luke’s account of the Emmaus disciples, like many Bible stories, is also about us. Thus, Mark offers these words of encouragement and hope:
“It’s our story. Jesus keeps doing this, becoming present with us even as we lament his absence. He keeps showing up, showing us things, walking beside us, making our hearts burn within us. We might not recognize him at the time. That often comes later. And it usually takes walking to get there.”
May we all become superb soarers at the end of our slow, humble, purposeful (often painful) “walk” with Jesus ever beside us promising endless love at last.
“Search for me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart.”