The Holy Moments

This weekend we attended the wedding of a friend we've known since childhood.

The groom had waited 43 years to find the perfect wife and it was worth the wait. She stood beside him in glorious white. The musical prelude was the same as "our song". My husband sang a beautiful love song in the very spot that my heart had felt it's first "pitter-patter" toward him. The preacher was reminding us of what real love looks like and I was focusing intently because I earnestly desire to keep our love alive and strong when the moment was shattered by scuffling beside me and my head jerked sideways to see two sets of blazing eyes...

"She won't let me use her pen!" he growled.

"He's going to use it all up and wreck it," she hissed.

I was filled with fury that they were disturbing this holy moment with selfishness. And I tumbled down into the pit with them.

That's precisely how all of our holy moments are destroyed.

Immanuel is God with us. All the time. In every place. Permeating every moment.

The very minute that I treasure my stuff...my agenda...my opinion...my schedule...my time, space and comfort...my...my...my...over the treasure that is in the soul and spirit of another person the sacredness and joy of that moment is lost.

It's not that I shouldn't have healthy boundaries or that I shouldn't be a good steward of all that I've been given. It's about life being lived with a keen awareness that my family, my friends, and random people in the grocery store are so loved and treasured by God that they matter more than...the stuff. This requires an element of humility. It's a choosing to honour what God honours.

The boy matters more than the pen.

The nurture and training of my children matter more than my agenda for the moment.

Forgiveness restores the holiness to the moment. Grace is a healing balm.

Recognizing that the person in any given scenario is the most precious part of the equation preserves the sacred.

It's another divine paradox that the letting go releases the joy we crave.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another,

for love comes from God.

Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7

Silent, Holy Night

I love this silent, holy night. The presents are under the tree. The children are asleep. It's quiet and the hush somehow seems holy to me. I always stay up a little bit longer to savour this moment.

What makes it so special? It's just another winter night. The lights and the music are nice. But there's something more. It's the "something" that changes everything.

Two thousand years ago there were ordinary shepherds on a hillside doing an ordinary job. There was an ordinary girl expecting a baby. An ordinary stable full of, you know, the things you would ordinarily expect to find in a stable. Well, it would have been ordinary...but everything was infused with the presence of God and that makes all the difference. Ordinary people, things, and events become extraordinary in the hands of God.

An angel of the Lord came and told Mary some pretty unbelievable stuff and she asked, "How can this be?" The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." That's it. She didn't have to try to get it all right, she simply said, "Be it unto me according to your word." And nothing has ever been the same. Everything was changed because an ordinary girl said, "Okay, you can use me. I trust you."

So, this ordinary night is not so ordinary. There is a holy hush because we've been focusing on a miracle and we've been filled with praise. We've come to adore Him. When we worship the "Holy Spirit comes upon us" and nothing is the same. Ordinary people become extraordinary. They can forgive the unforgivable, love the unlovable, laugh through tears, and have peace in the middle of a storm--all because the power of the Most High is overshadowing.

God always uses ordinary people who surrender to Him in trust. There's stuff we simply cannot accomplish on our own, but when we say, "Be it unto me according to your word," extraordinary things happen.