Moses died today -- today at deeper story

[caption id="attachment_4736" align="aligncenter" width="460"] Rothko's No. 12[/caption]

Moses died today.

In the lectionary reading, at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses died. it says that the whole of Israel wept and mourned for thirty days, that from the land of the chosen people came the wail of orphaned children. God had anointed another, but the first shepherd had been taken away.

Israel mourns for thirty days, the period, it is written, that was allotted. On the thirty first day, they removed their black garments, they washed their faces, they no longer sat on the ash heaps.

Moses died today, but I receive this as passing mention, today as I bake a loaf of bread. The death of the shepherd is assigned reading. I breathe it in as ordinary, those thirty days of mourning pass in a moment. Hands dip into dough, push, knead.

Moses died today.

Finish this fragment reflection with me? Today at Deeper Story.

Meet Preston

Preston is a twenty-something once-upon-a-time conservative Southern Baptist from Texas who learned to read saints, cross himself, and move across the world to China, England, and Scotland. Since, he's been theologically conservative, oft politically liberal, but radically pro-life, a believer in sacraments and sacramentality, a sort-of Christian feminist, an idealist pacifist who also understands the need for civil defense ... and a handful of everything else in-between. He thinks of himself now as a haphazard and patchwork Bapto-Anglican, though he is becoming confirmed in the Anglican tradition. This blog is his repository of working this whole faith thing out day by day, bird by bird. His first book, Tables in the Wilderness, a memoir of God found, lost, and found again, is due out autumn 2014 with Zondervan.