A River Runs Through It

      I love the drive from Billings, Montana to Lodge Grass, our temporary “home” during our work week on the Crow Indian Reservation.  As I make this journey each year, I am stuck by the beauty of this Big Sky state.  The landscape itself has a mystic about it as I consider all the history that has taken place right along the path of highway 90.  On this drive, I cross two rivers, the Yellowstone and the Little Big Horn; that together, shaped the history of this land and the people who lived here.  I think of these rivers collectively as The River of Change.  In 1805, William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, along with Sacagawea, her husband Toussaint Charbonneau and their 2 year old son, Jean Baptiste, floated down the Yellowstone River.  On a large outcropping of sandstone on the river’s bank, Clark carved his name and the date, July 25, 1806.   Still visible today, this signature is the only evidence of the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery that still exists along their two thousand plus mile trek.  These explorers were the first to encounter the people who called this beautiful land home.  The native peoples they met could not foresee the change to their way of life that was soon to follow.

     Sixty some miles on down Highway 90, I cross the Little Bighorn River. At this site, in a mere seventy years after the Lewis and Clark Corp of Discovery, hostilities  between the Sioux nation and the U.S. government came to a show down on June 25, 1876,at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Even though the Sioux effectively won the battle, the humiliating defeat only strengthened the resolve of the U.S. government and by the eighteen nineties, native peoples of all tribes were on reservations.  The River of Change, swept away their way of life forever.

     Now, 139 years since the Battle of the Little Bighorn River, here I am in Lodge Grass ,Montana  on my morning walk.  I walk across a bridge over that same river that ran red with the blood of native warriors and U. S. soldiers that June day so long ago. I think about all the change that river has witnessed as it meanders across the Crow Reservation.    The river looks peaceful now.  As I watch the river flow by, it takes my thoughts to times spent here with Crow friends and fellow FBC friends.   Along these river banks, we’ve witnessed baptisms, had picnics, refreshed ourselves in its water following a sweat lodge ceremony, and have shared joys and sorrows with the Crow friends we’ve come to know and love.  As the river of memories of my twenty-two years of coming to Lodge Grass streams across my mind; I realize that the river that runs through it all,  is the River of Grace.  Grace that I’ve received from the Crow people who took a risk twenty three years ago and welcomed us into their homes and hearts.  It is also, the Grace I’ve received from the First Baptist team of fellow workers who have journeyed with me all of these years to the Crow Reservation.  Grace in the form of infinite patience as those skilled in the construction trades have tried to teach me how to use power tools to build a deck or roof a house. As we work and live in community for a week, my human failings have often been on full display.  Yet, Grace has been shown to me in the form of acceptance, forgiveness, encouragement, humor and kindness by my FBC family.

     So, the River of Change and the River of Grace have run through my years to the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Montana.   How much richer my life has been because of all that I have experienced with the Crow people and our own FBC people.  It is amazing to witness the Grace of God at work in the world. Even more amazing; is to know that God invites us to participate in the giving and receiving of that Grace.