Okay… so yesterday I was going to write more about what we talked about at theCanvas on Wednesday night. I was going to look deeper into the idea that God wants to teach us to discern the difference between darkness and light… I was looking forward to sharing…
But then I went to the airport…
Will and Theresa (my brother and sister-in-law) left for Africa yesterday and won’t be back in the United States for around 18 months. They have moved to Africa to live into God’s calling on their lives. They will be doing orphan care ministry in a village near Jos, Nigeria and have made an initial three-year commitment.
As Lilly and I drove up to the airport we talked about what was about to transpire. I asked if she thought it would be emotional. She answered by saying, “Do you think you will be emotional?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
As the family gathered at the airport I could feel the tension throughout our small gathering. I was struck by the idea that there were hundreds of travelers all around us with no idea of the magnitude of the goodbyes that were about to take place between our families. It’s like all of those people were unaware witnesses of this huge moment that was taking place right before their eyes. Unaware that they were witnessing the culmination of literally years of dreaming, hoping, praying, and planning… a beginning of an adventure that would change everyone directly involved forever.
There was a heaviness enveloping the whole time…
After we all gathered and ate we moved out into an open space to say our goodbyes. Everyone lined up for hugs while Will and Theresa made their way around the semi-circle that had formed. As I watched my grandmother begin to cry it hit me…
This is the glory of God manifesting itself right before my eyes… this is really real…
Some scholars would say that a definition for the word ‘sacred’ is that which is really real. I couldn’t help but realize that I was witnessing a sacred moment.
On Wednesday one of the questions that we discussed at theCanvas was: Have you ever had a moment when you were surprised by the glory of God?
This was one of those moments…
In the book of Isaiah there is a part in chapter six where angels are flying around singing, “Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty… The whole earth is full of your glory.” (Isaiah 6: 1-3) The word glory in Hebrew means ‘weight or significance’ so it isn’t a stretch to say that the whole earth is full of the weight and significance of God.
The whole earth is filled with the weight and significance of God.
I think this points to the fact that God wants to reveal Himself to us in as many ways as we have eyes to see. He wants to ‘show up’ in the most unexpected of instances and speak Truth into our lives. Truth that our souls crave and our hearts yearn for.
I took a picture of Will and Theresa as they turned and began to walk towards their terminal. I wanted to try and capture, even if only in part, this moment.
They were walking in the Light and it has led them to Africa. They go their as ambassadors of the Truth… agents of reconciliation to a war-torn nation. In some mysterious way that we can’t fully comprehend, they go there and will incarnate the Love of God to people who need to be loved. Because they are followers of the Way, the Truth, and the Life they will point to Jesus… who shows us how things were always intended to be…
They go because the Light always has authority of the darkness…
They go because the Truth has called them to the least of these…
They go because they have a relationship with the living God who shows us how to separate the light from the dark…
They go… walking in the Light as He colors the world through their hands and transforms the darkness.
In an airport food court I watched as my brother and his wife took another step of faith towards God. This wasn’t the first they had taken… nor will it be the last. But the steps before made the scene at the airport possible, and the step yesterday will lay the foundation for the ones in the future.
I believe moments like these are taking place in everyone’s lives far more often than we recognize. God breaks through the noise of our everyday and wants to reveal Himself. It’s as if there are burning bushes on every corner waiting to be seen… rocks crying out along the road waiting to be heard. The weight and significance… the glory of God… is not some distant idea or some cosmic mystery.
For me… the glory of God was watching loved ones walk through an airport.
Yesterday… I was going to write about other things… but then I went to the airport…
And I’m glad I did…
