Wonderings--April 25

Heading to the office today to begin a new week with the Lord, I felt good. Sipping my coffee from the cup my family bought me as a gift at my installation here at Bethesda, I noticed that my stride was smooth, fluid, and relaxed. I still felt the click in my knee but there was not much discomfort at all. Slipping my bag from my shoulder in the office, I set it down on my chair, smiled, and thought, 'maybe a short one. I've got time.'

It has been a while, but I went for s short walk down to the cemetery gate and back to the office. . . .step after step I walked down to McConnells Highway. Turning around I walked back toward my office, but at the last moment, decided to walk home. This would extend my walk by a little bit and I still felt no pain. Touching my truck, I turned again, and walked back to the church still without pain. 

The entire walk was not much. I didn't walk fast and I was careful as I went. I made sure to keep one eye where I was going, one eye on the ground in front of me to make sure I did not trip or stumble, and one eye watching for parents bringing their kids to the day care. I really did not want to get hit by a car. (Yes, it was a little tricky to be that attentive, but I was). 

As I sat down in my chair, I sipped some more coffee, and then I wondered about miracles and how we define and quantify them as coming from God? 

In her book, The Bread of Angels, Barbara Brown Taylor speaks a length about manna. She, like the Israelites in the Sinai Desert, wondered why God sent it and what it's purpose was (besides being food). She offers us today the following thoughts on the topic: 

"Does manna have to come out of nowhere to qualify a a miracle? Or is the miracle that God heard the complaining of hungry people and fed them. . . Or to put it another way, what makes something bread from heaven? . . . 

If, you are willing to look at everything that comes to you (and I add parenthetically like walking around the parking lot) as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life. . .  Because it is not what it is that counts but who sent it, and the miracle is that God is always sending something to eat."

A short walk. . . a little time in prayer. . . a chance to listen to someone. . . a chance to be vulnerable to someone . . . a song in your heart. These are little miracles, little chances to notice what it is that God is giving you each day. The question that you have to ask yourself today is: will you see them as a gift from God, like manna, or are they just things that happen that mean nothing? 

I believe they are something special. . .  Do you? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek