Posts Tagged: "Seeing"

Advent Day 10: God Is Not Always Silent, And Man Is Not Always Blind

Advent reminds us to be awake, like the shepherds who heard the angel’s announcement. So often we hurry through life not really seeing and hearing… but perhaps we can see and hear.

In Abraham Joshua Heschel’s book “I Asked For Wonder,” he writes:

God is not always silent, and man is not always blind. In every man’s life there are moments when there is a lifting of the veil at the horizon of the known, opening a sight of the eternal.

Each of us has at least once in his life experienced the momentous reality of God.

Each of us has once caught a glimpse of the… Read More

Seeing What They Carry

At church the other night, I noticed something happen during our 5pm service…

a family came in late, just after the ushers had finished passing around communion. This family found seats in the back.

I watched as two ushers hustled over to them with communion trays – they wanted to make sure everyone had been served, that everyone had the opportunity to receive the bread and cup.

This pleased me immensely. I was proud of their reaction.

And it struck me: the cup and the bread are tangible. Easily observable. Either people got them or they didn’t.

Of course our ushers want to make sure everyone has at least been given the opportunity to receive them. This is only reasonable. One could scan the room and see who is holding the bread and cup and who is not…

By looking, we can see what they carry—whether their hands contain communion or whether they are empty.

There are also (many) other things we carry that are not so visible, not so obvious, not so easily detectable.

How many people come through our doors – or into our lives – and are carrying… Read More