Finding Shelter. Russell J. Levenson Jr.
you find yourself in your relationship with Jesus Christ, or the faith we followers of Jesus call “Christianity,” you will come to the book’s end having given a portion of each day during the autumn season to time set aside with him.
I don’t know how you do that personally. I find that such reflection time is best in the morning—before the news is turned on or the email account is opened. I pour a cup of coffee, and try to give a portion of each morning to prayer, study, and reflection. I am not always successful and often fail—but I do know when I do this I sense God’s presence more fully in the day that follows.
Let me share with you how this book is set up. I have written four devotional books for seasons of the year: Bits of Heaven, for the slower and longer days of summer; this volume, Finding Shelter, intended for use in the fall; and two further volumes, Preparing Room and A Path to Wholeness—forthcoming from Church Publishing Incorporated—for the liturgical seasons of Advent and Lent.
Throughout the four books, each meditation has a title, followed by a scripture. In the first half of this book, scriptures are taken from the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, and in the second half, the scriptures come from the New Testament. If you are not a regular student of the Bible, I have tried, in most of the selected scriptures, to add a bit of background regarding the author of the chosen verses, the time in which it was written, and a bit of context; perhaps this will encourage you to dig just a bit deeper into parts of the Bible that may be new to you.
Following the scripture, there is a meditation—most of which are based on the kinds of experiences and moments that occur during the fall season. At the close of each meditation, a brief question or comment invites you to look at things with a different perspective, or maybe with just a fresh set of eyes. Finally, there is a prayer, either from the larger Christian tradition or my own hand. Keeping in mind that we don’t all learn in the same way, you’ll also note photos and illustrations carefully chosen to enhance each meditation. In addition, there is space in most meditations to write your own thoughts and reflections.
Some of the meditations are longer than others. The season of autumn is longer than forty days, so you may want to move through the meditations at varying speeds—spending a day or more on one, and perhaps reading one or more on others. It is designed as a traveling companion—not a burdensome addition to your daily “to do” list.
It may seem obvious, but I am writing from the perspective of a Christian who came to faith in Christ in a particular way at a particular time in life. So, wherever you are in your relationship with God, or from whatever faith tradition you come—know that you have picked up a book offered from one who actually believes all the words I have included. I am honest enough to fully admit that I am on a journey and—as I will offer at the close of this work—I have so much yet to learn. But what I have now, I share with you.
In his book The Case for Christianity, C. S. Lewis offers some helpful breathing room for those inquiring into the Christian faith. He writes:
I have been asked to tell you what Christians believe, and I am going to begin by telling you one thing that Christians don’t need to believe. If you are a Christian you don’t have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that the whole human race were pretty good fools until about one hundred years ago; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. Like in arithmetic—there’s only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others.1
Finding Shelter is offered as an attempt to help the reader get a bit deeper toward the truths that are offered in and through the Christian faith, and a life in and through Christ. My hope, and invitation, is that you simply come to it with an open heart and mind.
And now, I invite you to turn this leaf in the book and begin your autumn journey—may it be a good journey, indeed.
A Prayer As You Begin
O Almighty God, who pours out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may be present before you, in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.2
1 C. S. Lewis, The Case for Christianity (Nashville: Broadman & Polman Publishers, 1996), 31.
2 A prayer amended from “Before Worship,” in the Book of Common Prayer, Charles Mortimer Guilbert, Custodian (New York: The Church Hymnal Corporation, 1986), 833.
And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
—Genesis 3:21
I have a few kaleidoscopes that I keep near my desk. Sometimes, particularly when I have had a challenging conversation with someone where we might not have seen “eye to eye,” I pick one up, hold it up to the light, and give it a few turns. They are reminders to me that not everyone sees everything the same way—and in fact, sometimes the way I am seeing things needs a fresh perspective, a change of view.
The first book of scripture, Genesis, has much to offer. Its first phrase in Hebrew is bereshith, meaning “in the beginning.” The English title we use comes from the Greek geneseos, which could have a variety of meanings—birth, origin, even genealogy. In any case, for those of us in Judeo-Christian faiths it is the starting point. We almost immediately think of that opening chapter of our story—creation born, flora and fauna come to life, man and woman brought to life by the breath, the ruach, of God. A good day or two, and then, well—the devil shows up and everything goes quickly down the drain. Temptation, deception, betrayal, shame, and ultimately punishment as Adam and Eve are banished from Eden. Onward.
But there is a kind of throwaway line in the story that many people miss. After Adam and Eve carry out the first “cover up,” we are told, before they were tossed into the harsh cruel world, God sat down and made them garments to wear—He “clothed them,” the scriptures say.
Does that not say a lot about God? He really is a parent. God certainly has days when He is angry at what His children have done, but that does not mean God stops loving them, caring for them, providing for them. Here, “in the beginning” sin was born (original sin, we theologians call it); God could have wiped the blackboard clean and given it another start. But nope, He decided—even in the midst of the discipline about to be carried out—not to send His children into the world without the protection they needed.
When this line caught my eye some years ago, it was a kaleidoscope moment. I often focused on the sin and guilt and shame and punishment part; and passed