Things I love

Well, Derek has asked Kairos, the group of college-students and twentysomethings that meets in our home Sundays, to write out a list of things we love. I have enjoyed reading his list, and others' whose lists appear in the various blogs here interconnected. So here is my own, organized mostly in the manner it occured to me...

1. The God who chose the trickster Mama’s-boy instead of his likeable brother, then wrestled with him till his hip was dislocated and lamed for life and he was hanging on His neck gasping for His blessing, and called that “prevailing” and renamed him “He struggles with God” (or perhaps “God struggles”)
2. The God who let that trickster be tricked and broken for long years, but when he was old and tired and frightened and tender told him that his beloved Joseph would close his eyes.
3. The God who named us after that trickster.
4. The God that wept with the mourners outside Lazarus’ tomb.
5. The God that wept over Jerusalem and said He had wanted to take her under his wings but she would not have it.
6. The God who heard that Terrible prayer that was lifted up by the waters of Babylon, and answered it.
7. The God of the Seven Thunders that we did not hear…
8. The song that this God has sung into reality, and all the beautiful, terrible substance of that song.
9. A light mist over glassy still water just before sunrise.
10. Wind, especially a warm steady wind in my face.
11. Just a breath of wind in the morning, enough to raise anchor and drift out without the engine.
12. A steady 10-knot wind, smooth water, a close reach with all the sail up, sun optional.
13. A steady 15-knot wind on a broad reach, with following 4-foot swells.
14. A wind loud over the bow and in the rigging, pressing you over, nothing to think about but the sails and the waves and the tiny world of your small vessel, keeping afloat.
15. A quiet cove in the evening, with a good bottom that will hold an anchor.
16. The man and woman who gave me life, a warm home, and taught me how to be happy. May we meet again.
17. The woman who gave me love and four children, three from her own womb, all from her own heart.
18. Lauren
19. David
20. Daniel
21. John
22. Keith, and those yet-unknown young women who will become my daughters-in-law. May God make them just so.
23. The comforts and intimacies of marriage.
24. The smell of the top of a baby’s head.
25. Evening before the fire, with a good book, snowing outside, and no appointments tomorrow.
26. Early morning before anyone else is up, the house quiet, with room for the mind to work.
27. Books. New books. Unread, chosen books.
28. The poetry of T. S. Eliot
29. “Four Quartets”
30. The poetry and prose of Carl Sandburg.
31. Science fiction, the kind with coherent science and a speculative premise.
32. When you read the Velveteen Rabbit, and the young child in your lap asks why you are crying, but you cannot say.
33. Why did Jesus cry?
34. Celtic music, the kind with mournful whistles and uillian pipes that make you long for something, and weep, that remind you that the world will break your heart.
35. But not bagpipes.
36. Beethoven, especially as conducted by von Karajan.
37. Most music conducted by von Karajan.
38. Johannes Biber’s Cycle of Mary
39. Latin music
40. Dancing to Latin music
41. Dancing tango.
42. Driving. Especially an open car, especially on a trip.
43. That sense, alone in a car or in a boat, that one could go anywhere; that an adventure awaits.
44. Learning
45. Seeing connections between apparently unrelated ideas.
46. Seeing glimpses of God’s ideas in the world He created.
47. Wondering
48. The ocean. Could never live far from the ocean.
49. Remembering. Longing.
50. The wind again, warm in my face, and a well-found boat. Time to go…