Pilgrims On The Earth

These all died in faith… and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13 KJV).

Scripture offers several ways to think about God.

He is a Judge who invites us to accept a pardon for our sins. Or He can be a Father who invites us to be adopted into his family as sons and daughters, to be ‘born again’. Or maybe He is a Husband who invites us to be His bride.

But for us golfers, God is a Caddie who invites us to walk with Him on a journey—to be a pilgrim. Jesus says, “I am the Way…Follow Me”, so off we go down a wide fairway with our Caddie.

But wait a minute. Jesus never said, “I am the Wide Fairway.” In fact, He said the way is narrow. If you walk with Him, there will be some heavy rough, some bunkers, and worse. Even a cross.

In fact, wandering off the path seems to be part of every person’s story. Dante captures it in The Divine Comedy: “Midway along the journey … I woke to find myself in a dark wood, for I had wandered off the straight path…” (Dante was clearly a high-handicap slicer).

Go find The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) written by John Bunyan from a prison cell. You will find a man named Christian on a scary but wonderful Walk.

Sue and I are now in Scotland for a few weeks where life and golf are all about Walking.

We started with a jetlag walk near the North Sea beach at Brora Golf Club. Later that evening I walked eight holes with six clubs, playing with my two young friends Luke (age 15) and Timmy (age 10). No one kept score. We just walked and talked.

The next morning was a 7:08 a.m. tee time at Royal Dornoch to play with the only opponent I can regularly beat- myself. I was disappointed to discover a lady teeing off at 7am, wondering if she would ‘hold me up’.

The starter Vinny quickly corrected me on that thought, explaining that Jacqueline Bents has the 7:00 a.m. tee time every day. “You’ll never see her”, he said, and boy was he right. I was on the 16^th green when I finally noticed her on the 18^th green at 9:25am.

And then best of all, Sue and I took a late evening walk around Brora, where the late June sun sets at 10:21pm.

We walked the fairways out to the 6^th green, turned around and headed back down the 12^th fairway for home. A huge half rainbow appeared over the ocean. The bottom of the rainbow dipped into the sea, lighting up the Tarbat Ness Lighthouse on the horizon. It was soon a full rainbow like a Hollywood production of lights and wind and nature and sounds, with seagulls flying and waves crashing.

It was our Caddie, God Himself, speaking to us as we walked. “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice! Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise.”  (Psalms 96:11 NLT).

And then Psalm 23 got involved in this walk!

Near the 15^th green we were greeted by over twenty sheep enjoying a lovely evening dinner of tall grass in the left rough. Climbing the uphill 16^th, four sheep provided an evening silhouette on the steep hill above, with the rainbow and lighthouse in the background. Even the moon was there.

Sue and I both started spontaneously quoting the 23^rd Psalm. “The Lord is my shepherd…”

And for me even better, the Lord is my Caddie, He walks with me.