All That Is, Seen and Unseen

Note: This is a preliminary ride report from the Double Caesar 600K that I did last weekend.  I’ll post a full ride report later, but I wanted to go ahead and share this marvelously magical first part of my ride, which helped sustain me the rest of the way.

Last weekend I had a new experience.  Not just riding a 600-km (379-mile) brevet, the longest single bicycle ride I’ve ever done, but also starting at 4:00 AM!

The ride began in Evans, GA, about an hour-and-45-minute drive from my house.  It didn’t seem worth it to stay in a motel.  I’m not even sure most motels have the option of checking out in the middle of the night, unless perhaps you’re a member of the world’s oldest profession.  Therefore, I went to bed as early as I could on Friday night and left my house at 1:45 AM on Saturday morning.

The logistics went smoothly as I arrived at the start and got my bicycle and equipment ready.  At 4:00 AM we rolled out.  I actually felt pretty alert.  My companions and I chatted a little bit, but none of us seemed to be in an extremely talkative mood.  It might have been the hour, or it might have been the dynamics of this particular ride.  They’re all unique.

Because the extreme distance required a mellow pace, riding in a paceline and drafting weren’t really necessary, but that’s kind of what we were doing.  We had been riding for about an hour, and I took a turn at the front of the group.  For a few miles, it was magic…

It was still a while until sunrise, and there was almost no traffic.  The moon was just past full.  The heady fragrances of various spring flowers mingled in the air.  We were riding on a wooded road with overhanging branches – an elfin tunnel.  The occasional birdsong or scampering sound from the shadowy trees reminded me of all the busy little creatures, chasing out their destinies.

Some of my favorite words filled and surrounded me: God of all that is, seen and unseen.  They come from the first few lines of the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God,

The Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is,

seen and unseen.

Most confessors of the Nicene Creed probably first think of the physical world as what is seen and spiritual things as what is unseen, which certainly is true.  I also like to imagine the God of the smallest entities that are: molecules, atoms, bosons, and even energy itself.  This is the same God of the other end of the spectrum: galaxies, supernovas, and the expanding(!) universe.  But this God is not completely unseen.  At our human scale we can perceive so much beauty and wonder all around us.  What delightful irony that even these things are unseen at nighttime!  Barred owls call “Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you all?”  Spiders quietly build fairy hammocks from their gossamer webs.  Possums throw nocturnal parties in their woodland mosh pits.

You bring darkness, it becomes night,

    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.

Psalm 104:20

I’m never afraid when I’m outside, even at night or in a remote area, because all things belong to God, and God is everywhere.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 139:7-12