God's Mischief

a devotional for Bealtaine

Photo by noel o'shaughnessy on Unsplash

Thank you for joining us!

Before we begin our devotional, I wanted to share a Comment Highlight from last week:

On our discussion, all about the things we are looking forward to in May, we got so many beautiful responses running the gamut from hopeful to bittersweet!

Ryan Lancaster

said:

My depression gets so much worse in the winter and bad weather, so in April I started my newsletter and am getting in the habit of posting regularly because I know it will be good for my mental health. And then in may when it’s finally warm and sunny I’ll be able to write even more with a platform I’m familiar with! Important for me to always have something to work on that I’m excited about and this is a great way to do that.

I love the expectation reflected in this response, Ryan! Thank you for sharing! Ryan writes a newsletter here on Substack called

The Empty Notebook: Personal Essays and Process

, where they post insightful essays about pop culture, literature, and anything else their heart desires!

If you want a chance to be featured in next week’s Comment Highlight, all you have to do is post a comment on any of this week’s posts or threads. That’s it!

Now, on with this week’s devotional…

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oh children of Bealtaine, be wary!
for the God of Spring
has left surprises on the path:

shells that are not empty, 
nests of eggs in the barest trees,
frogs in the watering cans,
flowers in the marsh!

each glimmer of delight
a subtle reward
for your survival:

you've made it through another winter;

and the robin sings
and sings
and sings
well after nightfall. 

There’s a pretty well-documented shiver of mystery that surrounds Samhain, the autumn threshold into the darker months of the year. But a similar mystique surrounds Bealtaine, her springtime sister, her seasonal twin.

Sure, it’s more sunny than spooky, but there’s a strangeness in the air. A frisson.

It’s mischief. God’s mischief.

For example, a few days ago I was walking the dog on our usual route. It was a gorgeous day, the kind of sunshine you wait all winter for. At the corner where our long gravel driveway meets the moderately busy paved road, I found a beautifully intact garden snail shell sitting on the asphalt.

I picked it up; it was empty and light. Knowing it would only be crushed by a wayward foot or tire, I pocketed it.

This is probably as good a time as any to say that I love snails. I find them fascinating, and any creature that carries its own house along with it is basically kin, being a homebody myself.

Once I got home, I tucked the shell into a small pot containing a freshly-watered houseplant as a reverent decoration, and I went about my business.

For two days, I took impassive notice of the shell as I passed it to and fro through our sunroom. But then, on the weekend, I noticed that the shell was sitting upright, when I had definitely placed it on its side originally.

Upon investigating…a very confused snail was peeking out at me from underneath!

With an involuntary squeal and a lot of apologies, I picked it up and ran out to our pond where I deposited it in a nice shady muddy spot, far away from my tender garden plants.

My theory is that the shell felt so light and empty when I first picked it up because the poor thing was drying out, and by putting it in the moist soil of the houseplant pot I had unwittingly rehabilitated it!

I swear, I swear, I heard God’s laughter in my own as I left the pond. Shocked, relieved laughter. I don’t dare imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t noticed the snail, and it had crawled away into the sunroom somewhere!

But that’s not what happened. Instead, I saved a tiny life by accident. A pest to some, but a tiny life all the same.

That is Bealtaine in a nutshell. This is the season for holy surprise, where God will make mischief and we will witness wonders. All that is required of us is to pay close, rapturous, and ready attention.

What will you see, today? And are you ready to see it?

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