The Best Spiritual Writing 2012 by Philip Zaleski

Author:Philip Zaleski
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-08-19T10:00:00+00:00

JILL NOEL K ANDEL

Burial Cloth Removed

FROM River Teeth

TEN YEARS OF MY LIFE LIE HIDDEN. I MISSED THE 1980S ALTOGETHER. When people talk about ’80s TV shows, politics, or movies I hardly have a clue. Reagan went missing somewhere and I never really found him. A part of me went missing, too. I turned up later with a sort of confused amnesia. While I cannot say who won Oscars, Super Bowls, or pennants, I can tell you other useless trivia. I can tell you about being mugged in Zimbabwe, being held at spear point in Lusaka, having army ants eat all my chickens and ducks—alive—down to the bone. I can tell you how the mist feels falling upward off of the magnificent Mosi-oa-Tunya Waterfalls, how an African fish eagle holds its heavy morning prey, about the pungent wild smell emitted by a herd a hundred strong of wildebeest.

I can tell you about being alone.

When Lazarus was sick unto death, Jesus knew and waited. He let Lazarus lie dead and cold for three days before He came. Before He wept. Does it matter what Lazarus missed those three days in the tomb? And when they pulled the cloth away—Mary and Martha longing to see that beloved irreplaceable face again—was it the same as they remembered?

I love a God who is difficult to explain and hard to understand. He crushes what He loves. Take Joseph of the Old Testament. Joseph the good boy. Joseph the good man. There’s not one sentence, not one word in the Bible that shows he ever did anything wrong, yet—beware of being too good—his brothers threw him in a pit, sold him as a slave, and told his father he was dead.

God hides His face from those He favors.

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