Teenagers enthralled with broccoli, proudly comparing pineapples, and lugging enormous watermelons. It's hilarious to watch them so excited about food they wouldn't touch in the cafeteria or glance at twice in a grocery store. So why the sudden charm at a sprawling busy farmer's market?

Autonomy has something to do with it I suppose. It's really a lot of freedom we give them, to wander the market with friends and make their own choices. They check back in surprisingly often. They show off their purchases with pride, but also, I think, feel some security in knowing we're still there, still aware of where they are, still focused what they're doing.

They beg for ten minutes at playground, squealing and jumping like ten years olds, then stagger back to the bus burdened with flowers for their moms, bulging bags full of vegetables, and jaunty plastic sunglasses.

The last few days of eighth grade innocence, nudging at the edge of the chasm of high school.

a voice of one calling in the desert,

Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.

Mark 1: 3

A voice of comfort, a promise of end to oppression,

A voice of terror, the unimaginable power of God.

I imagine the Jews of Jesus day were well familiar with these words from Isaiah, clinging to the hope of freedom from Rome and the vindication of the coming kingdom of God. But what did they mean to the gentiles Mark is believed to be writing to here? A brief history lesson, an authentication through prophecy, a context of Jesus' place and time?

John is prepared in the desert for the ministry he leads.

He prepares in the desert the way for Jesus.

Jesus too, retreats to the desert, to prepare for the ministry that changes the world.

In the desert of life, a voice is calling, what will I do to prepare for the Lord?

I hear bullfrogs croak

I hear crickets murmur,

I hear a chorus of birds from tree to tree.

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I see a cardinal darting between the brush,

I see lacy towers of green and purple and pink,

I see the swollen swirling river rushing between steep banks.

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I feel soft warm breezes,

I feel fingers numb on handlebars,

I feel the splash of a puddle beneath my tires.

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And I touch the hand of God

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1

I mistyped as I wrote that verse. It read at first, "as a prisoner of the Lord". That's a pretty big difference really, although I've always thought of it that way. So what does it mean to be a prisoner for the Lord. "For" sounds much more voluntary. It sounds even like a joyous choice made to give honor to God. A choice to restrain yourself from the way you might otherwise live in order to celebrate a life in Him.

A life worthy of your calling. A life that honors He who called you. Paul gives hints at what that might look like; humble, gentle, patient, and loving. A portrait of the life of Jesus, a living image of He who issues the call.

Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
Ephesians 5:14

The first warm day, of sunshine, soft breezes, and geese on the river. Couples walking friendly, bright-eyed dogs along the trail, while children take to the streets on wobbling, over sized bikes.

It feels like waking up, to soak in the sun again. It feels like the euphoria of summer in Alaska, when the oppressive darkness finally gives way to glorious unending light.

Wake up to spring, wake up to sunshine, wake up to the enduring promise of walking in the light of God.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

In one more week, my boy will be gone. Off to start his life, to make his own way, a young airman with all his future before him.

I can say all the right things. It's time for him to make this leap, it's the right choice, it will be a good life. It makes it no easier to watch him go.

He's a strong young man, Godly and focused and centered. He longs for direction and a life of meaning. Through his quiet, steadfast faith, he'll find what he was created for, he'll enter the good works prepared for him. All I can do now is pray for him and let him go.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Ephesians 1 :18-19a

Paul praises the Ephesians for their faith and their love. He prays for their wisdom and knowledge of God. Then he prays that they know all that He has called them to, all the full riches of what they have inherited.

What would it mean to truly understand that? Is there anyone who ever really has? The Ephesians were gentiles. The Hebrew God unknown, even forbidden to them throughout their lives. Now they find that he included them too. That they are sons of the inheritance, fully accepted by a Father they had never before acknowledged. How much history did they know? Were they eager to study and know this God, to explore his promises and gifts to his people?

I wonder how they could be anything but, and yet how much do we really know? Where is the eager impatience to know all we can of the gift we have been given, to know all God has done for us, to rest in the hope of "his incomparably great power"? And how would our lives change if we ever did truly understand?