I woke this morning, looked outside, and saw that the world was covered in a light dusting of snow. I went to sleep last night in ordinary old Columbus Ohio and I awoke in the most beautiful city in the world. A few minutes later I read the following words:
What if everything that is holy isn’t somewhere else? What if it’s right here?
I said out loud… Yes! Yes! Yes!
I was reading an online devotional written by Kate Bowler. Kate went on to say:
I hear a lot from people who need to invent their own ways of being holy in difficult moments, and I just want to say, YES. What an excellent idea. Even when it’s messy. Perhaps even in those bad manners you detect at the grocery store, you see a bad day instead of a bad attitude. Secretly hesitating that one little step to let them get ahead of you in line, the irritating become a little bit holy. There’s rest in that. There’s something else to pay attention to. When you slow down, you can sip the beauty in the everyday. And notice that light that shines through your baby’s fingertips. Or to delight in the sneakiness of the pink of dawn that catches hold in patches of sky you thought the sun couldn’t reach… In the color and texture of ordinary vegetables, and the magic in kitchens everywhere when heat and oil and spices collide… Sometimes people worry that they are being irreverent. That things that are divine and beautiful shouldn’t be everyday things. But I think that this is exactly how we know that our biographies are special. It’s all in the details. So this week, if you need a minute to feel God interrupting your life, don’t worry too much about making it sacred. Maybe you just need a hot minute in the car in the Target parking lot to remember that the very stuff of your life is holy.
The very stuff of our life is holy. I need to be reminded of this. This pandemic keeps surprising us with its ability to destabilize. I need to be reminded that God has not left us alone to meet the challenges of our days. That holiness is all around us. In the faces of those we love. The food we create and share. The acts of kindness and compassion that we experience and, on our best days, initiate. The very stuff of our life is holy.
This day, where is holiness showing up in your life?
-Written by Amy Miracle
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Justin, at eco plumbers, told me they have a happiness guarantee. He sounded young. I don’t think he was being ironic!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Listen to Carrie Newcomer’s “Holy as the Day Spent”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxzO8DyY9e8
Rosie, thank you for the video! I love that song and didn’t realize there was also a video. Shared it with a friend this am.
You’re so welcome! Glad you could pass it on…. ; )
Made cookies with a daughter today: holiness in the ordinary- very ordinary!
I love all the messages in your blog’s. thanks!
Thank you for this holy insight. There are ups and downs to living in an apt— congregate living I think it’s called. There are seemingly endless opportunities to gather with others or just to be greeted as we move about. We can also retreat to the quiet of the apt. There are holy times as we move about.
Amy your words cause me to reflect ,look for the “holy” in my life. Thank you so much.
Snow makes the world look fresh and new and always brings me joy and hope. As a friend shared with me recently, snowflakes are winter’s butterflies. Though I’ve known it for a long time, sometimes I forget: heaven is right here if we will but stop and see it. Thanks for the reminder, Amy.
Yes! Thank you for this. Xox
Sometimes we need to be reminded that holy is everywhere and in all we see and do.