Bob Hamp

The air smells like leaves, and enters my lungs differently than the humid Texas air.  The leaves remaining on the trees look like flames, with their bright orange, yellow and red hues.  This is also different than Texas.   I have been in Texas more than twenty-five years.  My life is anchored there.  Right now I am in the land of my childhood, southeastern Michigan.  I just had a fresh donut (well…Ok…three), and hot cider at a local Cider Mill.  I haven’t done that in decades.

So while I am here, I notice something that is more visceral than conscious.  These experiences are memories that I have not been remembering.   Something in me is connected to them, though it is faint.  The air, the leaves, the smell. it more than familiar, it is embedded. 

I am not so much longing for something, or reminiscing.  I am really just noticing how much is stored in me that I am unaware of while I walk around.  Friends names and faces, familiar experiences, or locations, seasons in life that leave their mark on my soul.  All those  things seem to be stored somewhere in me. 

It makes me think of one of my favorite stories.  True or not, I am uncertain, but the story is re-told of the three-year-old boy who stands over his baby brothers crib.  Looking at the serene face of his infant brother, he says, “As soon as you can talk, you will have to tell me about God.  I am already starting to forget…”.

I think that certain places. moments and experiences remind us of the things that are stored in us.  Some of these things are memories of childhood experiences, some I believe are deeper than that. Some of the things stored inside us have to do with the Image of God in us, whether we have consciously experienced it or not.  Certainly these are things we are made for, like the Lion born in captivity, that still has an innate awareness of the jungle he was made to rule. 

Why do we desire to stand on top of mountains?  Why do we have appetites for solving dilemmas?  Why do we enjoy speed, or weightlessness, or increased strength?  I am convinced all of these things are stored in us.  However foggy they may be because of wear and tear, I am certain they are in there. 

We are made to stand along side the Ruler of the Universe, and do our part.  Being made in His image is about much more than thumbs and noses, it is about nature and capacity.  It is about love and about influence.  It is about the ongoing desire to right wrongs and to enjoy beauty. 

Buried in us, deeper than a childhood memory of autumn and cider mills, is a code.  A design.  A nature which will find expression.  I hope it is sooner and not later. 

I am pretty sure that our thinking has something to do with how we lose sight of this.  Thinking the same day after day, we start to assume that we are made for day-after-day.  Our mind builds a much smaller world than we were made for, because of the limitations of our mind.  Thinking “the same” seems to shrink our world, and ironically our shrinking world seems to makes us think “the same” even more. 

You have to choose on purpose to think differently.