Al Loiry, a retired pastor joined New Hope Church when I served there in Cedar Park. He also lived in Buttercup, our neighborhood. Al loved to walk. When I saw him walking there in the hill country, he usually had a walking stick and he always wore a smile. “Those who look to the Lord are radiant . . .” (Psalm 34:5). I came to believe that Al was not walking by himself. Somehow his walking coincided with his worship. He and Jesus had the best time walking and talking together. I never asked him what they talked about, but I could tell that he and Jesus lived with an enviable intimacy.
In the Bible’s first genealogy, we learn that people were born, had children, and died. Their stories are boringly similar, with a single exception. Most of them lived between 700 and 999 years. They had sons and daughters. When the writer of Genesis wrote the rhythm of these ancestors’ lives, he interrupted himself long enough to show how Enoch was different.
Enoch walked with God. In context, Adam and Eve had walked with God and talked with God before the fall. But for the first time we read about one of their descendants walking with God. God apparently enjoyed Enoch’s company so much that he said one day as they walked, “We are closer to my house than we are to yours today. Why don’t you come home with me?” So Enoch did.
If you ever wonder: what does God really want for us? Micah answered the question in his book of prophecy. “What has the Lord required of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8) Then Jesus came to earth and stopped by the seashore to say to two sets of sons, “Follow me.” And they did. What God really wants for us today is what he experienced with Enoch, and my friend Al Loiry. God wants us to walk with him and talk with him, so he can tell us we are his own. And oh the joy we will share . . .
