Shortly before arriving at our current campsite, it came to our attention at least a few zealots had marked their calendars for this coming Saturday, May 21st, as the date the rapture was finally going to take place. Being Victoria Day weekend here in Canada, we can only assume, no matter what Newt Gingrich or Pat Robertson might say to the contrary, this means Jesus is a Canadian.
My dictionary defines rapture simply as a state of “spiritual or emotional ecstasy.” My thesaurus provides synonyms such as “elation”, “euphoria”, “exhilaration”, “intoxication”, and “rhapsody”. It also includes the words “heaven”, “paradise” and “transport”, though I don’t get the impression the editors at Merriam Webster’s were thinking along the same lines as those spending most of their waking hours praising Jesus in hopes this somehow makes them more appealing people to spend eternity with.
“So why a post about rapture in a blog about travelling across Canada?” I hear you asking. Because it occurred to me this morning as I was climbing the mountains northwest of our camp, rapture is a state of mind, a way of being, or a process. It is not an event. It is not something you wait for, and certainly not something you pray for; it’s something you go out and get.
This is bad news for the man we saw in Vancouver the other day holding a sign on a street corner admonishing people to accept Jesus as their saviour before it was too late. Not only is rapture a process, but it happened for me this morning three days ahead of schedule. It really began as Zeus and I watched a moose climb the ridge north of us, and then continued when I discovered the delicate beauty of wild crocuses in bloom near the summit. It reached euphoric proportions as I sat for a few moments enjoying the snow covered peaks surrounding me on all sides, and continued as I photographed a Columbia ground squirrel guarding its den while chirping a warning about our continued presence to its nearby comrades who had already run to the safety of theirs.
Rapture is a reasonably frequent experience, or can be. I’m hopeful wherever we are on May 21st, we’ll experience it again. All I can say for sure is if you’re spending your time watching your calendar waiting for Jesus, or any other event, real or imagined, it’s unlikely you’ll ever experience it at all.
An additional post regarding the return of the rain on May 19th will be forthcoming. This blog-post is being submitted from Medicine Hat, Alberta.
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