“I will see it and remember, the everlasting covenant” from Genesis 9:16
Do you see the rainbow? Leslie snapped this picture a few days after we left Harvester Island. I couldn’t help but remember God’s promise to Noah.
“I have set my bow in the cloud,
and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (verse 13)
I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. (verse 15)
When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember, the everlasting covenant.” (verse 16)
Genesis 9 (italics mine)
My week on Harvester Island was a week of remembering. Remembering God and the goodness of his grace. For a week I lived on an island of grace (Leslie’s name for Harvester Island) realizing after I was home, my experience was worship.
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
In front of Leslie’s Writing Sudio
I shared this picture with Leslie and told her I was feeling loved (hugged) and pointed to God.
I also shared with her that returning from vacation last January, I decided to pursue a possible new writing project which led to joining Leslie’s Your Story Matters class, and then to the Harvester Island Writing Workshop (HIWW).
I had spent those two weeks last January on another island meditating on the book of Jonah.
“Sue, those are bones from Fin Whales you’re standing under; the same species that swallowed Jonah”, Leslie responded. A God moment.
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
Generosity, the grace of giving overflowed. Leslie offered us the gift of her writing studio for the week. She lived out these words … “But as you excel in everything – see that you excel in this act of grace also.” II Corinthians 8:7.
-
- Lots of painted rocks on Harvester Island
-
- My journal & my view from Leslie’s desk
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
Watching some of the men in our group in that 25 foot aluminum skiff one afternoon picking salmon enlarged my understanding of grace. Those row-boat shaped crafts have the capacity to hold 6000 pounds of salmon. God provides; God protects. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” I Corinthians 15:10. (italics mine)
-
- On the way.
-
- Leaning into the nets.
-
- The catch, Sockeye Salmon.
We watched from above on the edge of the island, at the same time enjoying the antics of the Bald Eagles and baby Matilda … or is it Matt … perched high on an Alder tree.
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
Sharing meals with others is grace. Sharing meals with others leads to stories of grace. Tammy and Joleen created the atmosphere and shared their gifting with us twice every day. (Yup, I gained weight and it was worth every bite!)
-
- Joleen and Tammy
-
- Beach Picnic
-
- The Diningroom
Their abundant meals, beautifully presented, more than filled our stomachs, they filled our souls. Salmon in many different forms (Have you ever enjoyed Poke’?), Halibut, King Crab, and Venison (Sitka deer were plentiful on the island). Our beach picnic a fun diversion. I can’t wait for the recipe book they are promising. We circled, held hands, sang, and prayed before each meal acknowledging the God of grace.
Our King Crab Celebration the last night on Harvester Island
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace
God’s creativity, his grace offered by his creation, overflowed with gifts from the ocean. Before the tides rolled in in the early mornings, some walked out on the spit greeted by several varieties of Starfish.
Early riser, Laurel, snapped this Starfish. Gray on gray.
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
“See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it no less the excitement and gladness:
touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it
because in the last analysis all moments and life itself is grace.”
(italics mine)
These words penned by Fredrich Beuchner in his book Listen to Your Life describe worship for me: the mystery, the hard, the excitement, the holy, the hidden. These words describe my week on Harvester Island (minus the boredom and pain).
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
One last thought …
I can’t recommend these books highly enough. Surviving the Island of Grace is one of Leslie’s memoirs written 13 years ago. Reading it before my Alaska experience was a bit scary until I read the afterword added in her second edition published earlier this summer.
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is a Gary Schmidt novel. Its story of identity, people-pleasing, and the worth and value of every individual kept me spell-bound as I read it on the plane flying home. Gary was Leslie’s writing teacher partner and our other teacher for our week.
Your Story Matters is the book (and the name of the online course) that started my journey to Harvester Island. Leslie is offering a free four week introduction to her YSM course starting mid-October. Please ask, I’ll give you the details.
Wilderness Worship on the Island of Grace.
“Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD
has dealt bountifully with you.”
Psalm 116:7 (italics mine)
Thursday, October 7 – Wilderness Worship – I Almost Touched a Whale!
Copyright: Sue Tell, September 2021
I think all of us who gathered on the Island of Grace have been touched and changed forever. Working today on my Bible study, the question was posed, “What might be different in your life if you exchanged the fear of the future for the fear of the Lord?” (Katy McCown, “She Smiles without Fear,” p. 84)
My response: “My recent trip [to Harvester’s Island] was a perfect example of how I am learning to trust in God and letting go of fear. I made a deliberate choice not to allow the nagging voices of “what ifs” steal my joy in the journey. At every turn, God proved He is the Waymaker. In each moment of what could have been viewed as an “Oh, no!” one of our group stepped up, put on his mantle of belief, and led us all out of our wilderness of fear.: hymns played on a 1906 Steinway piano, Eucharist of pilot’s bread, smoked salmon and grape juice mixed with honey, fish pulled by hand from nets and prepared like the manna they were, consumed with thanks for the gift of their sustenance. Each moment contained the very essence of God’s love for us.
We went to a place where we were stripped of our complacent comforts: cell phones, internet access, hot water, baths, flushing toilets … and it was as if by letting go of such flotsam, we stepped onto holy ground, blinking in the light of God’s presence, surrounded by the rugged yet perfect landscape, and found ourselves in a place where the separation between us and Him, is and each other, was as thin as the wall of our mother’s womb. We trembled, we laughed and cried, we were awed and humbled. We celebrated together our fear – in other words, our love – for our God. We came home with spirits as shining as Moses’ face after he beheld the bush that burned but was not consumed.
Can we not each day achieve this right here, right now, in each moment of our lives? How can we do less, when faced with the proof f His abundant love at every turn? Amen … amen.
Janet, you could not have said it more perfectly.
Your words fleshed out mine. Thank you dear friend.
FMA,
sue