(Hornillos del Camino to Castrojeriz:  20.1 km, 6 hours including 1  1/2 hours in breaks; about 28,500 steps, plus more later)

Matthew 13:1-23
v. 4-8a As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop.

As I walk through the meseta this parable is easy to imagine. The path is hard, dry and dusty and won’t receive any seed. I think birds are kept away by multitudes of pilgrim feet, but we’ve seen some flittering among the brush lining the road and eating seeds from the dead sunflowers. And rocky places? Yesterday from a distance we saw white fields ahead. Had they been sprayed with something? When we got up next to the fields, we saw they had been tilled but the entire surface was covered with white rocks–a crop of rocks! I don’t know how anything at all could grow there. Thorns and weeds line the paths, a thick tangle that keeps anything else from growing. But in other fields that roll toward the horizon are fine crops of wheat and barley. All this soil is like people’s hearts, receiving the Word to different degrees, but the Lord is so bountiful with his word that he scatters it everywhere, all the time. He gives people one chance after another to cultivate the soil of their hearts and receive the good seed, promising a life abundantly richer in eternity than the best we have now.

Field of rocks

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West end of cathedral by the dawn’s early light

On the road again!

(Burgos to Hornillos del Camino: 22 km, 6 1/4 hours–about 30,500 steps plus 2500 later)

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Maurice and I talked about this verse on the walk out of Roncesvalles. The path was narrow and rocky and the difficulty was only increased by cyclists who appeared silently behind us, antsy to pass. Such is the road to eternal life, Jesus tells us. Hard. Constricted. But it goes somewhere worth going, and not everyone finds it. Thank you, Jesus, that you walk this road with us. Thank you that you are the road.

Through the park and out of town

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Arriving at the 14th-century Arco de Santa Maria in Burgos yesterday

(Burgos–only 8600 walking-around steps)

Matthew 6:25-34
v. 28a “And why do you worry about clothes?”

I had to laugh when I read this passage today. Last night we discovered Maurice had left our laundry supplies bag in the Belorado albergue. It contained the hand washing powder I had carefully researched and packed, binder clips (more versatile than clothespins), safety pins and, most valuable of all, our lightweight stretchy clothesline (really two lines twisted so you don’t even need clothespins if you run out) with clips on the ends. The clothes we had washed earlier weren’t anywhere near dry and the real hotel we are staying in does not have a clothesline in the bathroom or out the window. In the grand scheme of things the laundry supplies were a minor thing to lose (considering Maurice was ready to walk out of an albergue one morning without his glasses) but I was irritated. “Do not worry,” says Jesus, “saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’” or ‘What shall we hang the clothes on?’ After our trip to the post office we went to the Chinese shop we had found the day before, where the dour owner pointed us to plastic rope and clothespins, only 1.50€. Later Maurice creatively strung it in our hotel room; we trust the clothes will be dry by morning. I am thankful for God’s faithful provision, for his Word that speaks to us where we are and for his gentle rebuke that nudges us back to the narrow road.

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