One of the comments that a previous post focusing on my bald head elicited was that it was a good “parable”. At first, that surprised me. The post was meant simply as an anecdotal retelling of an event in the past. Upon reflection, I realized that such retellings can indeed be “parables”.
Jesus used simple everyday things and events to give us glimpses into what the “Kingdom of God” was like: a lost coin, yeast used in breadmaking, seeds, strained relationships between a Father and his two sons, unjust law makers, heartless rich men, birds and flowers in the field. He never spoke about a bald head but, he did say, “And even the very hair on your head are numbered.” Whenever I hear or read that scripture passage, I imagine Jesus turning to me with a big grin on his face and adding as an aside, “ In your case Gilles, that didn’t take very long did it!”
It is also in simple everyday things that I often get glimpses of God in my life. Things that, for some reason, draw my attention and compel me to keep them in my heart and to mull over them. Sometimes these are heartwarming, and I feel like cradling them gently. At other times, they can be heart wrenching and I must grapple with them for a long while. But in both cases, there comes a time when, like Jacob after his night-long struggle with an angel, I realize that “God was there, and I did not know it.”
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