Eugene Peterson

It was a first for me
hearing a man talk about his pregnancy.
But this man was no kook.
This was Eugene Peterson,
scholar par excellence
and gentle pastor.

The pregnancy lasted several years he told us
while he was in New York.
He planned to be a professor of Hebrew and Greek,
never thought he would be a pastor.
But he needed the money
and took a job
as an assistant pastor in White Plains, New York.

"While teaching the Revelation of John
I became pregnant," he told us.
"I imagined myself as John, exiled."
Before then pastor had been a flat word.
But John's pastoral identity worked itself into him
because John is the patron saint of pastors.
He began to see that the classroom
was too much excluded
and too tidy.

Weaving in and out of Revelation
he found his call.
"Write what you see," the angel said.
Writer and pastor were the same for John
like right foot and left foot.

Writing became a conversation
with Scripture and his congregation
listening
looking around
edging into his story.

He spoke of paying attention
and prayer
and metaphorically of sitting in the dark
with a flashlight in his teeth.

I was humbled to listen to this man of God
thrilled to learn of his love for John
who has always been my guy.
Now I eagerly await this memoir he writes
as he undergoes yet another pregnancy.