It’s time to play… “Catch the Snowball”
I heard of this endearing game the other day from the other side of the globe. You create a snowball and allow your pet dog to see it. Then you hurl the snowball into the distance where it splatters into a thousand snowflakes.
Your dog has followed the flight of the snowball through the air and has bounded off exuberantly to chase the snowball but then when the snowball has exploded, runs around in quizzical circles almost as if to say ‘I know it’s around here somewhere.’ Then, called back the process is repeated with both owner and pet enjoying the game and sense of fun.
As I imagined this game it seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to my own quest to grasp the divine. The glimpse of something unquestionably real, the bounding along with hope and delight only to find that somehow what I thought I was chasing has morphed into a different dimension and I am left puzzled and intrigued. ‘What just happened here?’
What if the aim is not actually to capture the snowball and claim it solely for myself? Maybe the thrill of the chase is what it’s all about.
I ponder that the snow is all about and around. What I saw was perhaps just a concentrated and compounded glimpse of something that is not elusive, but is natural, available, reachable and as infinite as snow in the northern hemisphere on a chilly February evening.
And then I turned the whole thing on its head and asked. ‘What if in fact, it is we who are the elusive part in this game?’ Maybe it is an exuberant and enthusiastic God who simply is chasing us and longs to play ‘Catch the Snowball’.