Lamar is taking a break, so I have prepared a short thought for our Simple Sabbath post this morning. I sat down at my computer and the first thing I noticed on my desktop was two images; items my eldest daughter had picked out for her upcoming wedding. One is the cake topper. People don’t just use plastic molded standing brides and grooms for cake toppers any more. And the other is a little “accent” for the wedding – to be used at just the right time. I love it.
They are both secrets so I’ll just have to leave them here on my computer until they can be revealed during their wedding day. But thoughts about the wedding led to other thoughts…musings about life events.
Christmas will be here soon, my eldest daughter is deeply involved in planning for her upcoming wedding in March, we’re picking up a new “family member” today (a six week old Alaskan Malamute puppy), my younger daughter will be finishing her hair stylist program this summer and a friend of mine died last week. Births (I know, I’m using a puppy birth and the Christmas season for my example…), graduations, weddings and funerals. I’m 47 years old and I’ve been sitting through or experiencing all these occasions literally since my own birth in one way or another.
Only now am I realizing the spirituality that comes along with these events. Every single time I get to experience the “something greater than ourselves” feeling when one of these occasions comes along. In Sunday School last week we were talking about God revealing himself through creation or in natural ways and one of the first comments was “the birth of a baby.” The miraculous knitting together of biology, physiology, personality and promise. And yes, this is greater than us. Every time I sit through a funeral, I look around at some of the people with whom the deceased was connected. I usually know a few of them, but certainly not all. Their life was greater than any single person in that room – it is a powerful knitting together of comradeship, connectivity, relational power and amazing support. The resources represented in the audience of a funeral are greater than any one person – greater than us.
A child graduating has the potential for greater hope than just the moment before when they had not yet walked across the stage. Two people walking down the aisle in a wedding will immediately have greater possibilities combined when the wedding is finished than when they did just prior to the “I do.” The spirituality of that feeling: the thankfulness of knowing it’s not all on us, it’s beyond who we are, the world is amazing and the Creator – incomprehensible yet personal. That spirituality is what I’m grateful for this morning.
That is why we are not discouraged. Though outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are renewed day by day (or, occasion by occasion).
II Corinthians 4:16
Today, during this Simple Sabbath time, I wish you renewal and moments where you enjoy all that is greater than you. ~ Peace.