Oh river, rolling river
Sing me your dream
Oh river, rolling river
Sing me your dream.
Sara Thomsen
Last Saturday we hiked up to the Fifth Falls at Gooseberry State Park. After leaving the shoveled trail that led to the main waterfall, we only saw one other pair of hikers. I was glad we wore our traxs over our boots. It was beautiful but also icy / slushy as we walked the trail that follows the river upstream.
The river was truly rolling. Water was flowing fast and breaking through the ice that was thawing in the warmth of the day. We stopped often just to listen to the river. She did seem to sing. The river was singing her springtime song of letting go.
The river’s gurgling was the song that I needed to hear. I needed to be reminded again to let go of what was and trust what will be. In some ways that is the Easter story, to let go of the past and trust there is more, there is always more.
The resurrected Jesus tells Mary Magdalene in the garden, “Do not hold on to me“. As Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopalian Priest wrote, “It was a peculiar thing for him to say since there is no evidence she was holding on to him in any way. Unless it was the way she called him, my teacher, the old name she used to call him. Maybe he could hear it in her voice, how she wanted to go back the way he was so they could back to the old way they were, back to the old life where everything was familiar and not frightening like now. ‘Rabbouni’, she called him, but that was his Friday name, and here it was Sunday, an entirely new day in an entirely new life.”
We also can’t hold on to what was. Afraid and yet hopeful we join the river in her springtime song. We can’t hold on to what was, but we can trust that God has ahold of us. God is carrying us all the way down stream to whatever the future holds.
“O river, rolling river, sing me your dream”
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