Small in the Face of Mystery

My daughter Siri and her boyfriend Neal are traveling the world. This last week I talked with them on Skype about their recent kayaking trip to the fiords on the northern island of New Zealand. 

They have been in many extraordinary surroundings, but something about this experience got Neal talking,“ We were in these small boats on this large body of water, looking up to the enormous and vast green cliffs of the fiord. I realized I was only looking at a small part of something quite far-reaching. I felt so insignificant.” He said it with awe and a sense of joy.

I remember a fellow pilgrim on a hike to Mount of the Holy Cross saying those words, ”There are different ways of being insignificant. Go to a mall or ride the subway in New York and you feel insignificant in the face of all these people rushing to something. I do not like that kind of insignificance. However, I do seek the insignificance the mountains call me to. When I gaze at a mountain range or spend my day hiking, I realize how small I am and how small the burdens are that I carry.”

Currently I am reading Take this Bread by Sara Miles. She describes her powerful experience of receiving communion bread for the first time. She cannot seem to articulate her experience to anyone who can understand until she finds a friend, who she says,

“deeply understood the 'relief' of finding yourself to be small in the face of mystery”.

“The ‘relief’ of finding yourself to be small in the face of mystery”…this is what I would call “Grace." 

Kari Reiquam