the 420 hook

We had lunch at the cafe downtown.  I didn't know what we would talk about.  She's a student. She's recently celebrated her engagement to a man in the military, who is right now on his way to Afghanistan. She runs and studies a lot.  She lives at home and commutes to school. She is afraid, but confident.  She has a plan.
I asked her about her faith in God.  She said that everyday she sees the number 420 and she thinks about God.  Her birth date is April 20th, 4/20.  She says that almost daily 4 20 appears to her somehow--on a clock, a licence plate, an apartment number. And when they do, she thinks of God---God the creator, who has blessed her life.  She says when things are not going well she will see a 419, a sign that she is not tracking with God, that she is out of rhythm.  She likes to think of the daily reminder as a kind of reorientation of her daily rhythms.  Does she need to slow down and breathe? Does she need a reminder that all will be well with her?  God shows up on the numbers that mean something to her. It is personal. A numeric post-it note reminding her that God is near her.  Everyday. For two years.

So I suggested that maybe there was something more to it.  Like a tap on the shoulder.  If someone were tapping me on the shoulder or calling me everyday for two years, I would wonder why or I would become annoyed and tell them to stop.  She said it is not annoying, just a gentle reminder.  But it happens everyday and she smiles or laughs about it.  Sort of like, "Okay God, hi."  So I pressed on.  Lutheran Christians believe that God creates us and adopts us as beloved children through baptism.  In holy baptism God liberates us from sin and death and unites us with the risen Jesus Christ.  We are reconciled, reconnected, rejoined to the creator.  Baptism is also a calling to live as God's faithful people. Baptism is vocational, leading to discipleship in the way of Jesus. God creates a people to live God's purpose in and for the world.  God invites us to love our neighbors, to forgive, to heal, to serve, to give life and to protect it.  Baptism is the first step in a process of becoming like Christ.  We spend a lifetime learning, trying, failing, trying again.  So I suggest that God is drawing her attention to something. What does God want with her?  Why is 4/20 important?  A gentle reminder can also be a nudge, a wake-up call, an invitation.  What is God trying to tell her? I told her that a lot of people go through an entire day, an entire year, without having noticed the presence of God.  Like a good song, God uses a hook to get us to pay attention sometimes. A rainbow. A bird.  A word.  A person.  Somehow God uses what God has made to draw us into communion with God.  4:20 is the hook.
Devil's advocate says that her upbringing in a faithful home, coupled by a bit of coincidence, creates this imaginary encounter.  Her interpretation is purely contextual, based on what she knows and believes.  I say the devil is partly right. It is faith that sees what she sees. She has the gift of faith, letting her see and understand her experience from a theological perspective. Faith is a mystery that transcends other forms of data or evidential explanations.  She is a biology and math student and she sees GOD in the number 420.  God is present and presents God's self to her in a daily number.  Someone might tell her to play the lottery. I didn't.  But I believe that God's presence is essential to Christian mission.  It was the presence of God in the risen Christ that compelled the first disciples to share the message with others.  God's presence has purpose beyond ourselves.  God does not stroke egos, even if God does and can make personal calls.  I believe that she needs to hear the daily message from God:  "You are my child, my beloved, you please me." We could all use a reminder like that.  But God calls us because someone needs us to bear God's presence to them or for them.  So what does God want with her?  To whom is she being sent as a bearer of God's loving and faithful presence?  How can she incarnate the love of God enfleshed once and for all in Jesus Christ, who sends the Holy Spirit upon believers that they might become bearers of God in their flesh, too?
 After a three hour lunch we both thought it was time to go.  We checked the clock.  It was 4:20.