YOU NEVER KNOW...

          Yesterday, on the first day of spring, our dog, Faye, and I walked on the towpath along the D&R Canal from Fireman’s Eddy up toward town to the wing dam and back. It’s a 2 mile walk on which Faye likes to stop every so often to sniff and leave her mark which interpreted in dog world is “Hi, everybody. Faye was here.” I don’t mind that she does because it gives me a chance to pause for a few seconds and briefly meditate to the sound and flow of the river.

          Ever since we moved here, ten years ago now, I have felt extremely grateful for the way things worked out in finding the place where we live. While I was still the pastor in Cranbury and about two years before I retired, Chris and I were starting to think about where we might move when that happened. Neither of us owned a home of our own. We lived in the parsonage, which was the case for me in the various churches I served, so that was the only living situation I had had for all those years.

          Years ago when I was on the staff of St. Andrew’s UM Church in Cherry Hill, a woman of the congregation came in to see me one day. She was a very spiritual woman for whom I had a great deal of respect. And in our conversation, she asked me, “Do you ever use “picture praying?” I told her that I didn’t know what that was, so she explained it to me.

          In essence, it is using your imagination to think of whatever kind of situation you desire to manifest in your life—a new job, healing and good health, a place to live, etc. You picture that scenario in your mind in a way that includes you being completely happy and fulfilled in whatever life situation you wish to change or have happen. Every so often, throughout your day, you let that picture run through your mind. And if you can’t come up with an exact picture, just imagine yourself being surrounded by a white light.

          Now I realize for some people that that will sound completely like a bit of New Age thinking. I understand that. However, I have used it throughout my adult life since she shared that with me, and whatever anyone else thinks of it, that’s fine. But I will tell you this: it has definitely worked for me in various times and ways.

          Case in point: As I said earlier, Chris and I were wondering where we might live. We both had ideas of what area we wanted live in and the kind of house we would like. In the meantime, someone sent me a wonderful Christmas card with a picture of a house on the front. It was a country house in a very inviting winter scene, and I thought to myself that that was exactly the kind place that would be perfect. So I cut the picture off the front and pasted it up on the wall across from my computer. Every so often for those two years, I would look up at it and imagine us living there.

          Well, time was getting short—a couple of months away from having to move, and we hadn’t found a place to move to. One of our kids—I honestly don’t know which one—told us to look on Craig’s List. So we did and found a great farm house in the Lambertville area. We contacted the owners and went to see it and made up our minds that that was just the right place for us and it very much remains so.

          But I have included two pictures: one is of the card that I posted on the wall of my office and the other is of the place where we have lived for the last ten years. All I can say is, I highly recommend “picture praying” as something that is worth trying, even if you’re skeptical.