It all started with a deep desire. I simply wanted to be there!
I am not an early bird at all. Waking up at 4:30 in the morning was a true struggle for me. But the alarm went off and I woke up ready to go; and I realized I was asking “Lord, show me your face today!” It was still dark when we departed from Kansas. As we were driving, the sun was coming up as new dawn; and a new day was starting to unfold. And as the sun was getting bigger, my desire to be there was getting stronger.
It was a beautiful day!
We got to the place prepared for us were we gather together and the joy and simplicity of the people was in the air. It was a different joy. Not a phony sentiment of “isn’t it wonderful, we are all Christian together”; but a genuine one, a real joy! Because definitely there was Something in the air; Something that unites us all. We started the day with the hike. There was beauty all around me. The beauty of the hills, the beauty of the sky and the air distending and diffusing itself, everything was crying out “look farther away, farther away! “See, we are Beautiful!” And I could see the horizon from where I was standing, the new horizon I am searching for that keeps my heart in motion.
And the hike began.
I looked the trail and I was scared. Father Jim said to me: “are you afraid of height?” I hesitated for a moment and said “yes”. And He said “do not be afraid, it is not as it seems from here, and you can always go back”. Those words were familiar to me; how many times Someone has said this to me before. Those words reminded me of my freedom “I could go back”; but most importantly, those words gave me the certainty that “I can do this because I am not alone!” We started the walk one by one. I looked the trail in front of me and hesitated for a moment once again, when someone said to me: “it’ll be ok. I’ll walk in front of you and when you need just put your hands on my shoulder”. As we were walking a few minutes into the hike, the trail began to get narrower and narrower and I was scared; so I held on of her shoulders with one hand and someone else hold my other hand. I was so scared that I wasn’t able to look around, and I was missing all that beauty in front of me.
How many times in my life, I walk as a blind person; not the one that can’t see but as the one that does not want to see. As the one that get so scared, so suffocated by the struggles of life, missing what is happening around me. How many times in my life, as my trail turned narrower and narrower, I chose to go back, to walk away, dismissing the only One who never disappoints. But, I was not alone in the trail. All what I had to do was to look around me and see all those people walking toward the same horizon as I was. There is Something Big that moves us, that IS the reason for the hike, for everything, for my life.
Then, we got to a point where the trail became easier; it was wider and open with no obstacle and no more struggles. We simply kept walking in confidence, until we got to another point where the difficulty was different. This time, instead of walking down the hill we had to walk up and climb up to get to the top of the hill. Someone again asked me “do you need help?”, while someone else was caring for me from the distance. But, at that point and after walking that entire trail in the company of others, who were walking toward the same religious horizon as I was walking, I felt strong as I ever could be; I felt certain again that “I can really do this!” And with the courage of my freedom I climbed up as hard as I possibly could, as strong as I could because I knew I was not alone on the trail; I was aware of the company of others that were there on the same trail, to help me in my struggles, over and over again. That, there is SOMEONE who loves me all the way to my destiny and tells me “be not afraid!”
THIS is how I experienced the Incarnation happening; THIS is how the Incarnation becomes real in a companionship as ours.