Like the Sands Through the Hourglass…

I had an insight the other day as I went through my morning prayer. In my Christian tradition of being an Episcopalian, Morning Prayer is one of the many Daily Offices we recognize. During this ritual time, we confess our sins, worship our God with standardized Psalms and prayers (many taken straight from the Bible), and have three readings from the Christian Bible – one from the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from the Gospels of the New Testament.

I was in my reading from a day last week in the book of 1 Samuel where Saul is young and had been asked of his father, Kish, to go and find their herd of donkeys. Sounds like the beginning of a great bar room joke, huh? Well, Saul takes another boy with him on this task. In the reading we learn of their travels which it would appear take them late into the day. The reading refers to 5 ‘lands’ that they travel through – to me that would take DAYS to accomplish, but we know how bible time runs, right? They get to a town (village, tribe, fork in the road…who knows) and have an amazing exchange with some girls by the town well. From previous bible studies we know everything happens at the well. Saul and his companion continued into the town per the girls’ instructions. There is another interesting and explicit conversation between Saul and his companion, and they decide with great consternation what to do. They approach the city and see ahead of them, Samuel – the Great Seer, Esteemed Prophet, a Man of God (the bible’s words, not mine).

And the reading ends there. WHAT?

This was akin to watching a great episode of General Hospital or Dallas back in the 80’s – my mind is screaming, “What happened next? Did Samuel tell Saul where the donkeys were? Did Jimmy fall in the well? Did the men make it back to Kish before sundown?”

Now, truly, if I really wanted to know what happened next, I could have opened my bible which is right beside my computer and turned to 1 Samuel 9:15 and I could have picked up the story from there. But I didn’t. Because Morning Prayer is not like binge watching ‘Only Murders in the Building’ on Hulu. The point is not to just know what the plot is. These readings are selected with great care to get to a point and then turn you loose to contemplate what parallels or lessons might be relevant in your own life. This is when God ‘speaks’ to me.

So, what did God say to me after leaving me hanging like that? Tune in next week when we find out…. LOL! No, I’ll tell you. God told me plain and clear, “It’s not time for you to know the end of the story.” The story is a never-ending journey and when it is time (remember we talked about Bible time) I will see the next steps taken by Saul and his companion – and quite likely the next steps for my own life for which I am always questioning.