The Inward Passage

A few years ago Vickie and I took a cruise through the Inward Passage, from Vancouver to points north into Alaska. There isn't a lot of "action" in the inward passage; it's pretty serene with generally placid waters. Visiting a cold climate is different than visiting a hot climate, the skies, the clouds, the plants, the animals - though we did visit a rain forest in Alaska - yes, a rain forest.My skin lets me know whether I'm in Alaska or in the Caribbean, my body interprets my surroundings and goes into "hot climate" or "cold climate" mode.

I think there are times when we experience an Inward Passage in life; perhaps some of us more so than others. Our loss of Patrick has me in one of those Inward Passage experiences; contemplating the fragility of life. It is as if the cold horizons of Alaska's mountains and glaciers have found their way to Midlothian; the waters surrounding me are cold.

For an Easterner the vast spaces of America's West have engulfed me; the geographical perspectives of our continental East and West are quite the contrast. And for one who lives in the Lower Forty-eight, well...the endless regions of Alaska are to our West what our West is to our East...almost. For when I see the Rocky Mountains I know that on the other side of them is the Pacific; but when I see the mountain-vastness of Alaska I'm not sure there is an end to the rock and ice and snow.

But the Inward Passage has its own perspective, and it is not a perspective of largeness but rather one of intimacy; it is not an experience of speed and exhilaration, but one of contemplation and measured pace. Of course on the other side of the mountains that line the Inward Passage is vastness; but within the Passage a man or woman still has proportion to Creation.

Now I know that people die every day, I have told my congregations more than once that the death rate in this country is 100%. There is a vastness about the number of people who die everyday, a vastness that defies comprehension; but there is no vastness about Patrick dying; he was part of my life, he was part of my heart, seeing him throughout each week was as natural as breathing, thinking about him and praying for him and his family was to my heart-life what water is to my physical life. I don't count the number of times I drink water, I didn't count the number of times I thought about Patrick. Of course I still think about Patrick, and I still pray for his family...but it's not the same, is it? I know I won't see him this afternoon, or tomorrow, or the next day. There will be a Day when I will see him, but that may be a while longer - who really knows?

If you know what loss is then you know something about the Inward Passage. I hope you also know that our kind Heavenly Father wants to be with us as we traverse the Passage, for after all, He is our Shepard and if we have come to know Jesus Christ we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23).