I've been trying to keep an eye out for more of these moments. There's two I want to share with you.
The first happened today in worship. Our congregation has the practice of having the first scripture lesson read by one of our young people. The boy(and he really is a boy) scheduled to read this morning was doing so for the first time and is rather young. I don't know exactly what happened, I guess at the last minute he was too nervous to get up -- so his older brother (who's only in 7th grade himself) got up and walked into the lectern with him, and then they read in unison, the older brother supporting his younger brother when he faltered. Their mother was beaming with pride and joy, even after the service. It was really wonderful.
The second moment happened in our annual meeting. Our Moderator is a bright, articulate young woman, very organized, very task focused, but rather shy about speaking in public. To begin the meeting she offered "Openning remarks" that were basically a homily on a a scritpure passage -- not only was it well done, but the fact of her putting herself "out there" voluntarily and in such a vulnerable way was really powerful for me. She was living what we have been talking about doing in the congregation, openning ourselves to more intimate relationships. It was grace-filled.
It is hard for us to avoid being influenced by the negative messages that are so prevalent in our culture. it is so easy to fall into the influence of fear as the motivator for our choices. But grace can encourage us to live beyond the bonds of fear and open the doors to new possibilities for relationship and community. And sometimes all it takes is a companion willing to share the journey or a willingness to show people who we are. Grace abounds.
This is "the rest of the story" from the boys' mother:
ReplyDeleteJoaquin has read before but I usually type the scripture in larger font for him to read. This time, we did not have the scriptures ahead of time for me to enlarge. Joaquin told me not to worry because he could read it straight from the bulletin. This time, the scriptures were not in the bulletin. Joshua realized Joaquin would have to read it straight from the bible. This is difficult for Joaquin to do because of the small font and the structure of how the bible is written. Joshua offered to read it for him, but Joaquin felt it was his duty to read. He was going to try to read it by himself, but then Joshua offered to go and read it with him in case he lost his spot or something. This was done without Chris or I asking them. They are my true blessing in life:-)
Blessed indeed.