Like a River

Today I finished Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger and was thoroughly challenged and encouraged by it. It has so much symbolism and underlying meaning that I wish I was better at comprehending literature as it was always my weak point on standardized testing. Anyways, if you have not read the book and are hoping to some time soon, I would suggest you not read the italics. One way that I think the book has taught me is through the simplicity of God and how he relates to the characters in the novels. Miracles simply become a way of life as the father walks on air, prays for guidance, and multiplies food. These instance in addition to many other create somewhat of a simplistic picture of how we can and should commune with God. Jeremiah talks to God alone yet out loud. He paces, yells, whispers, knowing the Lord is in fact present. I wonder how different my life would be if I actually thought God was capable of carrying on a normal conversation with me and if I felt "confident" to speak out loud to the Lord. 

     At the end of the novel when Jeremiah is shot and he and Reuben are in the Other world running through the fields and along the river, I was given a renewed visual of heaven. Reuben feels at home and comfortable and longs to stay in that place with the others who are singing songs outside the golden city. I wish I could do what Reuben did, to walk in the fields and gardens and hear the singing of the river. To be so close to home would be an experience in itself. I wonder how my life would be different having been there; would I life my life as if I might be there tomorrow? Would I love others out of the assurance and joy of knowing that heaven is real and that God truly loves me? Or would I live selfishly, hoping only to pass the time to reach the final prize? Would I act arrogantly and hide my light from others, hoarding the joy and truth that I have received? 

    I wonder however, have I been there already? God knew me before I was born; does that mean I was fully in his presence when I entered this world? Was I wrapped in the mind and love of God before he put me on earth. I like to think this is true. Heaven is my true home, I was born there just as I was born into my earthly house. I have left, entered a new world, a world of my own outside of my family, and will return, just as I will return to my home in the presence of the Lord, or into the River. With this thought in mind, my life is not much different than Jeremiah's. I have been there and now I am called to choose how to live. There is where I need help. Reuben puts this best. "All I can do is say. Here's how it went. Here's what I saw. I've been there and am going back. Make of it what you will".