The unexpected

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Yesterday morning I sat in worship listening to a gifted colleague lead us to a deeper understanding of God's holiness and the call upon our lives as apprentices of Jesus.

She was poised. 
                Calm
                    Dilberate 
                       Filled with calmness
                          Bold
                              Courageous            

She was filled with God's spirit.  Her words powerful

As I sat and listened I wondered if my own preaching and leadership immulated the holiness that I was witnessing.  I wanted to have what she had.

In a twist of events Emma happened to be sitting next to me in this worship service and at the end she turned to me and said "Mom, you two are basically the same person."  I smiled and breathed a sigh of relief that there is a part of me that shines the light of Christ in such a way that others are invited in. Then I asked her one question (because who of us doesn't want to know what their teenager daughter really thinks!), "is my preaching as good as hers?"  For a brief moment I saw the sweet, truthful, light-filled being sitting next to me when she responded "mom, I'm a bit biasis but of course you are, that's how you preach."  A smile rose across her face and she leaned into me just to reassure me.

I told her it was the best compliment she could ever give to me.  

There are moments when unexpected grace and assurance rises up and you have to lean in to it with all of your being.    

It wasn't that I expected or needed my teenager to affirm my preaching, I was actually wondering if the words that I speak each week somehow penetrated the thick wall of a teenager who sits in the back working the sound system, drawing or playing on her phone.   Something unexpected happened yesterday I caught a glimpse of God's presence in a teenager who doesn't have a youth group of her own,who never gets to that coveted leadership position on the conference level and who has to listen to her mother to speak the words of God in her life.  

The complement was unexpected and filled my heart but the unexpected was the glimpse of the holy that I saw in my child yesterday.

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