Faith is a funny thing. It shows up in hospital rooms and in the desperate “Help!” silently prayed in the midst of a tense conversation. It seems to hover in the beauty of forests and night skies, punctuated with hallelujah’s. It peeks around the corner where single moms struggle to survive and shows up brave where “I forgive you’s” are offered. It’s whispered on the lips of soldiers dying in foreign countries, far from their moms.
But this week, as we attend both a family wedding and the funeral of a dear friend, it strikes me that faith surprises us most when we stop to look at life and see it in a multitude of “thank you’s”.
Weddings and funerals are times of family and reflection and as we are present in those moments we see it – even if it’s sometimes small or camouflaged or staggers uncertainly forward like a toddler – we catch glimpses of faith. There’s Something beyond ourselves and it matters.
Faith shows it’s face in the “thank you’s” for the One who gives parents patience and leaders direction, and muscles for the weak and grace that covers all our offenses.
God shows up and says “Gotcha”. Not in that mean-scary-I’ve-pulled-a-trick-on-you way, but in a way that says, “I’ve got you covered. I’ve got your back (and your front) and I’ve had it all along. I’m with you. No Matter What.
And often, it seems, at weddings and funerals we stop and see and say, “Oh. Yeah. Thank you!”
