EYES WIDE IN WONDER

He speaks to people who toss and turn at night, worrying over what they have and might lose.  He speaks to people anxious about what they are working hard to accumulate.  He speaks to people who watch markets and investments and who are unsettled by recent headlines.

Jesus tells us not to hoard treasure down here, but let God and God’s way and righteousness and grace and love shared be our treasure.  Then, as we mentioned a week ago, the Carpenter encourages us to open our “eyes wide in wonder and belief.”

I am so badly broken in so many ways, so deficient in so much, and yet God has given me eyes “wide in wonder and belief.”  I see blessings.  I always see blessings even when I whine and grump.  Even when the world breaks our heart I see blessings.

The stars at night.  The morning sun peeking through the trees as I pull into the Y.  The voices of people as the sanctuary fills up.  The feel of cool sheets as we slip into bed.  A conversation with a clerk in a store.  The songs of Allison Krause & Union Station filling my office on this dark, Fall evening.

The friend who sends me texts that make me smile.  (He offered, one tough week, to serve as my body guard!)  The blueberry muffin carried to the table as I talk with a good friend.  The Cheerios falling in the cereal bowl in the morning.

The hand at the end of my arm that now resembles the hand of my Grandpa Owen, who  -with Grandma Owen-  loved me and took me in when I was adrift on a sea of grief.  I came face to face with grace in that house on Leland in Indianapolis.

Ella telling me, “I’m sorry you have to go home, but I am glad you came.”  Livy protecting her Frosty by silently forming a ring around it with her hands, after I have asked, “Livy, can Grandpa help you eat that?”

The boys headed this way through the darkness as the family gathers for Thanksgiving and a wedding.

The touch of the woman who loves me and has put up with me through easy seasons and hard.

The choir singing “You Are Not Alone” as the people grow quiet, leaning forward, taking this message in deep.

Red and white stripped warm up pants.  A bag of kettle corn.  The story of Jesus.  A cry in a stable.  A cross outside the city.  A tomb still because the One put there is back out in the world bringing new life.

The quiet, deep ties that grow between us, you and me, as friendship deepens.  As we settle into the rhythm of a new journey with God.  My transplanted heart finding peace.  The lights coming on outside.

My eyes are open wide in wonder and belief.  Children have a way of seeing like that, don’t they?

When we see the blessings life is different.  Every day full of the light of thanks-giving.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark