Early morning heart preparations for Maundy Thursday included a simple meditation: “God’s presence is in every act of goodness, of kindness, of love. Look at the people around you, wherever you are right now. What goodness and kindness and love might be there in their lives? Can you recognize God present in them too?”
One of the Ebenezer Stones I placed in my heart during a brutally dark time was, “Find the Good and You Will Find God.” It was out of survival that I desperately sought to find and focus on the tiniest bit of good and give thanks, refusing to succumb to the magnitude of the devastation.
Today it is easy to “forget to notice” the good within the moments of the day. Busy routine rhythms of life are dulling songs. The news feeds demanding our attention, landing with loud, noxious stimulus quaking at the very center of our peace. The hard reality of loved ones suffering at the hands of unwanted diagnoses, job uncertainty, the loss of a relationship or a beloved. These and more leave us searching, “Where are you God!?”
My dot-n-law, Erin, recently shared this with me:
“In this season of so.much.life. So much good, so much haaaarrrddd. So. much. that sometimes I forget to soak in the trees. I forget to notice. As I was driving, I was feeling grateful, and also feeling the weight of this middle part. I passed a field of wild flowers. I love wild flowers. I know most of them are considered weeds, but they are forever the most beautiful unpicked flower. This field was spotty and colorful, like a messy rainbow spilling into a gravel parking lot. For a thousand reasons, flowers always make me think of Jessie Boone. And as I was driving, I was thinking how as kids, we notice the best parts of this world. Then we get busy and distracted, and then when we get older, we get back to noticing. I was thinking of Jessie’s sweet young life being paused at 15. Not that there’s no hard before 15, but there’s so much noticing. And even though I ‘ache’ for all the hard heartbreakingly beautiful things she’s missed and will still miss, I was thinking about how Jessie lives in a constant state of noticing. Of appreciating. Of loving. Not the kind of glitch where you can’t fix your tv, but like the glitch in the matrix that saves everyone. Jessie’s miracle glitch protected her from the middle part, the part where we forget to notice.”
Her words hit my heart like a balming ointment, bringing a soothing quiet to my soul. As I pondered her deep God-stirring insights, my heart turned to wondering about another woman, Mary, who poured balming ointment on Jesus just days before His crucifixion. Was there also a soothing quiet brought to His soul as He prepared for His middle part—Good Friday and His crucifixion?
The Good Friday experience at Crossings Church was a special invitation to wholly immerse oneself by walking with Christ in His Passion. Just a few steps from the outside world, this walking divina offered sacred moments of awakening to God’s presence and sacrifice within the darkness of the world. Would this be Jesus’s miracle glitch so everyone could be saved? Is suffering and sacrifice a way Jesus brings miracle glitches to help others awaken and notice His hand at work to bring redemption and restoration to this broken world?
Resurrection Sunday came with a beautiful “Sonrise” and a full noticing of ALL the goodness offered within the day—family, friends, worship, fellowship, creation, prayer, sharing meals, travel, farm time, telling stories, bouquets of wild flowers, even good servants in urgent care after an unfortunate injury. It was a bounty of life for us to feast upon with gratitude, knowing all good gifts come from God. Find the good and you can find God even in the midst of the hardest, darkest times because Emmanuel God is always with us and is in the business of doing miracle glitches… and if we aren’t paying attention, we might not even notice!