Our move to Utah has been fast and furious. Once Leif accepted a job in Salt Lake City at Capital Church, we had 18 days at home to pack everything we owned, stuff it into a U-haul and drive to our new city. The first boxes were well-packed, orderly. The last were stuffed, protruding with randomness.
We stayed on friend’s property for six-weeks. Moved to house sit for three months. Now we’re renting until the housing market picks up with options.
We arrived on a Saturday. Leif started work on Sunday. I started heavy travel season for speaking on Wednesday. Other than a few days over the holidays, we haven’t stopped. We’re still searching for our rhythm. Our sustainable new life.
I’m confident that it’s out there somewhere.
But today I feel swept up in the swirl.
Swirls differ from storms. Storms hit. Swirls arise. Storms shock. Swirls surprise.
Perhaps that’s why today’s reading in the #lentchallenge rings with hope and grace throughout my soul. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, busts with the high-volt story of the Last Supper, the betrayal, the two swords, the agony, the trial, the denial.
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Amid the swirl of activity, one image takes center stage in my imagination:
A pitcher of water.
Jesus will celebrate the Passover with his disciples. Nothing will stand in his way. Not the fact that Jerusalem busts at the seams with pilgrims. Nor the quiet deal that Judas booked with the religious leaders to turn Jesus over to the authorities.
Unlike other meals, the Passover required extensive preparation. Jesus handpicks John and peter to make the preparations. The Galileans wonder where the meal will be hosted. Jesus instructs them to enter the city and follow a man bearing a pitcher of water to the home he enters.
The man looked odd. Women carried water jars; men carried water skins. The disciples follow this man “bearing” a water jar, say particular words, and the upper room opens to them.
Sounds like a scene out of a spy movie.
Or the game Clue. My guess: Judas, in the library, with a knife in the back.
Irony abounds.
Passover celebrates life, yet the religious leaders scheme to kill the One who brings life.
Judas sells out the One who gives him everything money can’t buy.
Back to that pitcher of water.
Jesus could have sent the disciples to a specific address. But then Judas would have known where to send the soldiers to arrest Jesus. The secret arrangements prevented Jesus from betraying Jesus prematurely.
Jesus was going to die, but only on God’s timeframe, not when his enemies thought best.
Jesus uses a pitcher of water to perform a little miracle of sorts. Hiding himself, his disciples from those who wanted to arrest Him.
The Gospel of John records Jesus using a pitcher of water, in fact several, for his first miracle of turning water into wine.
Now here toward the end of his ministry a picture of water is used again, and we are reminded through it and all details surrounding this fateful evening that God is in control.
Not the religious authorities.
Not the throngs in the city.
Not the the betrayer.
In the Passover, God is in control.
In the preparation, God is in control.
In the last discourse, God is in control.
In the betrayal, God is in control.
In the arrest, God is in the control.
In the trial, God is in control.
In the swirl, God is in control.
Why is this important to you and me?
Because on this dark night everything swirls out of control, God remains in control.
As I read, I cling that water pitcher as a token of God’s ability to be in control when I feel so out of control.
And I realize the importance of finding my water pitcher.
The one item, the one interaction, the one detail I can cling to in the midst of the swirl of this move, this transition.
When we left Colorado, we hoped to rent out our home. A renter never arrived. Week after week. Month after month. We waited and waited. But then someone came along and bought our house. We never had to place the home on the market. The sale of our home last week is my water pitcher.
A sign that God is in control even when life is still swirling.
I don’t always feel it. I don’t always understand it.
Sometimes I feel like I’m grasping for anything that feel steady, anything to hold on.
Then I remember God is in control.
When the swirl of life leaves you dizzy and turned around, find your water pitcher. Find the one event, act, interaction that secures you to the goodness and faithfulness of God. Remember it everyday. Thank God for it. Reground yourself in God even in the midst of the swirl.
