It is God

But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human. 

I get to the root of things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be.

Jeremiah 17:10 (Message)

We are standing together, shoulder to shoulder with friends and strangers.  The lights are low.  I see people in silhouette, arms raised to the ceiling, faces upturned.  Like black cutouts against a luminous stage, I see their bodies sway in time to the music.  The music is what we came for, my daughter and I.  Just the girls.  A Christian concert at a local church.  Some friends invited us.

My daughter.  I glance sideways to see how she’s doing, to see how she is navigating this sea of emotion, to see if her head is above the spiritual waters.  This image is frozen like a snapshot on my brain.  Eyes closed, face tilted in the dark slightly raised hands in front, palms up to receive.  I think about her.  This daughter.  This blessing.  I wonder if she understands that this is worship.  This is praise.  I wonder if she is copying the hands of others.  She is, after all, a concrete girl and this… this is an ocean of abstract.

“Sierra,” I bend down and whisper, “what are you doing with your hands?”

She opens her eyes and I think I can see straight into her soul.  I don’t remember these depths, these layers.  I think I don’t know this girl.  I see complication, and understanding, and compassion.  I see abstract.  I see clear eyes full of wisdom.  I see an old soul in my daughter with Down Syndrome.

“It is God, Mommy,” and she raises her hands higher for me to see.

Oh God of the Universe, Help us to open our hands and our hearts to receive you.

Help us to be your hands in this broken world.

Linking With:  #TellHisStory, Three Word Wednesday, Unforced Rhythms

You Are

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, 

and all that is in them, saying: 

"To him who sits on the throne 

and to the Lamb 

be praise and honor 

and glory and power, 

for ever and ever!"

Revelations 5:13

I am looking out of my office window at the green, green grass, and the green, green trees.  At the house across the road, down the hill of my front yard, with its white siding and black shutters, its red-brick chimney and front porch.  We found a beautiful setting when we bought this home a month and a half ago.  And I'm thinking about the word "worship", and I'm thinking that this beauty around me inspires worship.  Because it came, ultimately, from God our Creator.

Who also created my daughter.  She came down from her room this morning with eyes full of sleep and hair in casual disarray, one leg of her bike-shorts/pajamas up and one leg down.  She walked straight to me and gave me a good morning hug.  Isn't it worship when I whisper 'thank-you' for this gift.  This hug.  This daughter.  This morning.

Isn't it worship when I go to chapel on the largest army post in the lower forty-eight, and see the big, the tall, the young, the strong - in uniform - raising their arms and faces to God in praise.  I see the families of those deployed, in community, supporting each other through the missing, through the struggles.  When I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst?

Isn't it worship when I witness the kindness of a young man who took my daughter through the complications and excitement of her graduation ceremony.  His graduation ceremony.  But he was thinking of her, not himself.  A young man, child of God.

Is it worship when a single drop of dew on a single blade of grass sparkles with the light of a thousand diamonds?  When the glorious color of a weed in the grass raises its yellow spikes to heaven?

Is it worship when the sun rises and sets, the stars spin in the sky, and the universe parades it's glory?  Glory to it's Maker?

Isn't it worship when our thoughts, all that we are, all that exists - water and rain, grass and trees, flowers, even the dust in the air - when we all raise our collective hands, our very selves in praise and thanksgiving to God?  When we dance.  When we sing.  When we cry.  All worship to God who made us, to God who loves us, to God who molds us.  To God who knows us and holds us close in his own hands.

Reverence and awe.  Large and small.  Inside and outside.  Beginning and end.  Worship.

Father, Lord, Creator, King - thank you for all that you are.  

You are amazing.  You are awesome.  

You are.

Linking with Five Minute Friday