On Golden Pond

“How lovely is your dwelling place,
O Lord Almighty.
I long, yes, I faint with longing
to enter the courts of the Lord.
With my whole being, body and soul,
I will shout joyfully to the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home there,
and the swallow builds her nest
and raises her young—
at a place near your altar,
O Lord Almighty, my King and my God!
How happy are those who can live in your house,
always singing your praises.

“Happy are those who are strong in the Lord,
who set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
When they walk through the Valley of Weeping,
it will become a place of refreshing springs,
where pools of blessing collect after the rains!
They will continue to grow stronger,
and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.

“O Lord God Almighty, hear my prayer.
Listen, O God of Israel.”

Psalm 84:1-8 (New Living Translation)

On Golden Pond

I am truly a bundle of different emotions right now. Having just spent two years here in Edmonton, getting a degree and being extremely involved in my church and part of a church family, the sadness at the prospect of leaving is close to unbearable. I don’t understand really what I keep doing wrong in certain areas of my life. There just doesn’t seem to be a place for me – I say that knowing it doesn’t make much sense. There is a place for everyone, right?

I currently have a beautiful place to contemplate God and His plans. Sitting in a beautiful kitchen/dining/living room area (all in one) in the new home of my friends Sherry & Brian Wine in Northeast Edmonton, while they travel to California, my laptop set up on their lovely kitchen table so I may gaze through the huge windows that line the back of the house. My gaze drifts to the pond a hundred yards or so away. The large pond is sporadically covered with a golden “muck” – some sort of growth that is affecting the ponds in the area this year. The evening sunlight accentuates the golden color.

Despite the golden muck, there are several families of ducks that make their abode in this pond. I watched one such family, led by about 8 baby ducks and trailing 2 adult ducks making their way, single file, to the center of the pond. It is somehow soothing to see families of ducks on the pond, as if their being there, doing their normal things makes everything alright. I imagine what it would be like if there was no wildlife, no other species, to fill our landscape – barren and boring are the words that immediately come to mind.

Beyond the pond, there is a field of bright yellow canola and beyond that forest. The skies here are large, very large, and the sunset is creating beautiful colors on the horizon above the pond. It is hard to believe that I am in the prairies now. Prairie life is not the easiest overall. It is very dry here, the winters are cold, the terrain is very, very flat, and the vegetation is quite sparse when compared to the eastern seaboard of North America, which is more familiar to me.

And yet, as I gazed upon the golden pond, watching the ducks and listening to birds chattering in the area, I marveled yet again that God would create an oasis like this in the midst of a dry, flat and sparsely vegetated area. It is as if He gives us a place to get a glimpse of heaven, even if brief, so that we don’t give up hope.

In my own life, I certainly feel as if I am in the midst of a dry, flat and sparsely vegetated land. But today, I thank God for my time “On Golden Pond” – a place where I could get a glimpse of the heaven that awaits me. There is a place for me . . . and for you. Just like the sparrows and sparlings . . . and ducks . . . we have a place in God's house, On Golden Pond.