by Rev. Timothy D. Kearney

Sometimes we hear words of wisdom, but it’s only later we recognize the words as being wise. Usually these phrases are said in casual conversation, so casual we may not realize what has been said. That happened to me a few weeks ago in Bangor, Maine at one of the few Howard Johnson’s restaurants still in existence. I was on vacation and stumbled upon one of the last Ho-Jo’s from the original chain and decided to order an ice cream sundae. No, they didn’t have all twenty-eight flavors. I counted fourteen, but it tasted like Howard Johnson’s, or at least what I remembered as being Howard Johnson’s, and that’s all that mattered.

As I was waiting in line to pay for the treat, a man and his wife were in front of me visiting the restaurant for the same reason as I did...nostalgia. We began talking. I learned that he and his wife were from Milwaukee and would be flying the next day from Bangor to Boston and from Boston back home. They had spent a week in Nova Scotia, then traveled to Bar Harbor, and then headed to moose country – Millinocket, Maine and Baxter State Park.

The two wanted to talk all about Nova Scotia and Bar Harbor. They loved traveling on the CAT, a high speed ferry that brings passengers from Maine to Canada in about three hours. They loved the grandeur of the Bay of Fundy and the beautiful botanical gardens. They rented bikes and learned to kayak. They hit art galleries in Bar Harbor and found the perfect painting of a seascape for their living room.

While I enjoyed hearing what they had to say about their trip to Canada and, thanks to them, now have Nova Scotia as a destination for another time, I was more interested in their visit to Baxter State Park. The next day I was going on a moose photo safari and wanted to know if they had seen plenty of moose up close and personal. When I asked, the man began laughing and said, “There were so many people chasing nature and they didn’t see a thing. We just stayed put and saw more moose than you could shake a stick at.”

“More moose than you could shake a stick at,” that’s all I needed to hear. The next day when I was on my moose safari, someone else would be doing the driving. All I had to do was sit back, relax, eat a few munchies, and when the comfortable air-conditioned car stopped, I’d just have to take out my camera and tripod, aim, focus, and shoot. One nice slide of a moose would make the entire trip, 312.7 miles from Roslindale to be exact, worth it.

A few days ago I picked up the slides from my trip to Maine. They contained nice photographs of some hydrangea and a lighthouse. I had forgotten I had taken these photos until I noticed a slide of a happy group of people I didn’t know. Someone else’s film was put in an envelope marked Kearney. Eventually I will get my slides, but I won’t see any moose.

My moose trip was a bit of a disaster, from the point of view of seeing moose, that is. First, my reservation got mixed up, so I didn’t get a guided tour of the back roads of Maine, but I did get a road map to let me know where I might sight some moose. My camera was also malfunctioning so I wasn’t sure if I’d get any photos at all. Also, there were no moose to be found at the hotspots, at least the places the map considered to be the hotspots. I hoped to get into Baxter to see some moose, but there were already too many cars in the park and it was getting late. The best time to photograph moose is at dusk, and dusk was quickly approaching.

After leaving the entrance to Baxter, I thought I finally had spotted a moose when I saw something brown moving on a hill. It was too small to be an adult. My first thought was “Great, a baby moose. Mother can’t be far behind.” I was at a safe distance. I set up the camera, got ready for the perfect shot, and then the brown creature began to move. It was not a baby moose...it was a woman dressed in brown picking blueberries. She called out and asked if I was planning on picking some berries. I said no, I was just hoping to get a sunset shot. I think it’s probably a good idea I didn’t tell her I had mistaken her for a moose.

I thought of praying. God hears the prayers of the downtrodden, but with the way my luck had been going that day, all I could think is that if I did see a moose it would be in front of me as I was driving on the highway at 65 miles per hour. The tour director did call me to apologize for the mix-up, and told me they only saw moose at one spot – the pond at Baxter State Park where the man and his wife, whom I had met the previous night, had sat and watched nature come to them.

Just sitting around and absorbing the beauty of nature almost sounds Biblical. Didn’t Elijah experience God’s presence when he finally relaxed and enjoyed a cool, soft breeze? Jesus took his followers to out-of-the-way places from time to time. The great spiritual writers all tell us that we need to find moments of peace and solitude to grow closer to God. We have to stop the running around, relax, and be open to God. We need to relax and let God be God, just as the man and woman I met had relaxed and let nature come to them.

Now, as you’re reading this article, if you’ve even had the time to get this far into the article, you’re probably thinking, “Relaxing, letting God be God, and experiencing God’s love is all well and good, but the busy pace of life gets in the way.” And as summer comes to an end, the pace changes drastically for most of us, so that relaxing with God may not be the easiest thing to do. Yet, as I thought about the moose I had missed, I thought about the day I did have and what I actually had the opportunity to see.

When I got out of my car to see if I could spot a moose, I saw a raging river with rapids that swept across the rocks. A few minutes later I saw some people white-water rafting, taking the challenges of nature in hand, and enjoying every minute. A bit further down I saw a father teaching his young children to fly fish. I found a spot to relax and felt like I was the only person in the world, and for those few quiet moments, I loved it. I saw a screech owl, but it flew away before I could get a photo.

As I went from a place of great natural beauty, I traveled through a small town that has faced some economic hardships over the past few years. While it is making some gains, it will never be the town it used to be. As I thought about all I had seen, I realized that each item could lead to something spiritual. The power of nature and its tranquility reminded me of God’s glory. The father sharing time with the children reminded me of God’s loving care. The town with its people reminded me that while we can have moments where we just enjoy life, the needs of others and the call of being a follower of Christ are always present. As I thought more and more about it, I realized that I had seen and experienced more than I expected.

In the hectic pace of trying to spot a moose or two, I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I still saw quite a bit. The mishaps of the trip will make it memorable for me, and thanks to my camera (that I feared was broken, but somehow managed to get a few nice shots), I’ll remember the trip for some time to come. As much as we’d like to in our own lives, we may not have all that many opportunities to sit alone and let God be God, but spending a few moments to look at our lives and to see all the things that happen can reveal ways in which God is present to us, even with hectic schedules, demands on time, and the ups and downs that can be so much a part of life.