MIGRATING TO WHERE DEEP SPEAKS TO DEEP
I saw a huge flock of birds swooping and soaring over a field this week. They were undoubtedly gathering to make their annual migration somewhere south for the winter. Preparing for their long flight, they were gobbling up all the grain left behind after the farmer had finished picking the crop.
Mid-September is when migrations begin all around us. Monarch butterflies head to Mexico; songbirds to the Caribbean and South America. Even some church members may soon be dropping down to warmer climates before the first frost of the season. These are visible migrations that remind us as visibly as the turning leaves that the seasons are changing.
But there are other, ongoing – even daily – migrations in the natural world that we never notice. Each day microscopic animal-like organisms called zooplankton migrate from the watery depths up to the surface and then back again. Zooplankton take their name from the Greek words for animal (zoo) and wanderer or drifter (planktos). Trillions of these tiny creatures drift in the oceans, freshwater seas, and lakes. Their migration is not like the butterflies or flamingos that travel thousands of miles. They simply move from the depths to the surface of the water and then back again. In a small pond, this might amount to a few feet. In the ocean, it could be a few hundred yards. I read that we ought not to underestimate this journey’s distance just because it seems insignificant to us. For zooplankton, it is equivalent to a man or woman rowing 500 miles in a boat just to eat breakfast. As they migrate daily from deep waters to the surface, these zooplankton eat and process aquatic plant-like organisms called phytoplankton, which means that these zooplankton are important filtering agents for their aquatic habitat. Their daily migration from the depths to the surface contributes to the health of the waters they inhabit.
This daily migration from the depths to the surface and back again is instructive for our Christian spiritual journey. Day by day, week by week, year by year we are invited into a rhythm of journeying from the surface of life to its depths and back again. In daily prayer and weekly worship, in times of mindfulness and moments of listening and caring, we have an opportunity to migrate from the superficialities of our days down into the depths of life; to migrate down to the Source of life where we have an opportunity to filter through what is and is not important so that we can rise back up to live more centered, more integrated lives that contribute to a healthier society and world around us.
It is easy to live on the surface of life. We can skim along through our days and weeks without thinking much about what it all means or accomplishes. Like another tiny insect, the water-skimmer, we skitter here and there without thinking much about what we are doing or why we are doing it. The surface of our lives is an important place to be. It’s where life is lived. But it’s not the only place we need to spend time if we are to lead meaningful, joyous lives. We also need times when we drop down below our superficial busyness and enter into our souls’ depths where we can discover anew who we truly are, what makes our lives worth living, and what values we really way guiding our daily choosing and deciding.
This rhythm of engagement and rest, of migrating from the surface and to the depths and back again, is what the biblical concept of “sabbath” describes. On Sundays, especially as we gather for worship, study, and informal conversation, we are invited to take a step back from the cursory, the shallow, the superficial aspects of our lives and drop down into our inner depths where we encounter the depths of the God who dwells within us. As Psalm 42:7 sings, “Deep calls to deep.” We need times and places where the unfathomable depths of God can speak to our most profound yearnings. As Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote:
Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease; take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.
The rhythm of migration is all around us as we move into autumn. May this season remind us of the persistent invitation it brings to dive deeper into our souls, to make meaning of our experiences, and to find renewed energy for the people and tasks that demand our best gifts rather than simply skimming through each day’s “to-do” list only to wonder if we’ve done anything that really matters with our time, energy, and attention.
With prayer,
Pastor Thomas