The past few weeks have been incredibly busy and hectic for my family. We are in VBS this week and for the umpteenth year I'm teaching in crafts. This year however, I also committed to transforming our 2 classrooms with decorations. Ya'll, I have dreamt in hot glue and construction paper for far too many nights lately. So Saturday was crunch time-I had 1000 loose ends to tie up, so many things to finish, and I sarcastically (but with a sincere heart) joked to my husband on my way out the door...I think I'll just take a sleeping bag down to the church with me.
My list that day felt impossible to accomplish, and it was one of those days where you could just sense...I'm not sure when and I'm not sure where, but sometime during this day I will have a full-on meltdown...
It happened in the grocery store parking lot.
In the midst of the 1000 things running through my head, somehow (God), I suddenly heard the radio (that had been on the whole time). It was the end of The City Harmonic's song "Manifesto". Have you heard it? At the end of it, they sing the Lord's Prayer. And suddenly...all the other things faded away and those blessed timeless words were practically screaming at me. It stopped me dead in my tracks.
Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy Name
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us our daily bread and forgive our trespasses
As we forgive those who have trespassed against us
Lord lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
For Thine is the kingdom, power and the glory forever
Forever. As I wept in my car in that parking lot, I-and my list-felt infinitely small. Because at the end of the day it was not really about many pinwheels I could made in an hour or how the decorations would stay up and hold for the entire week. It wasn't about the craft kits I was preparing or the techniques I would teach them. It was about Jesus.
The Name that is above all names that all will confess as Lord one day, that I whisper in moments of despair and am reminded that life is still filled with hope. A hope that is unshakable, unchangeable throughout all generations. A hope that has stood the test of time for the vast behind us, and will surely remain long after us. A hope that, God willing, we will pour into the next generation. Not like when is appropriate to wear white shoes or the skinny jean trend-fads that come and go. Instead we speak and teach of the same hope the great sojourners of our faith of long ago held to. And God willing, we will teach it to the the generations after us and they will learn to cling to it as we do today. It may come in hundred of forms and styles-Christian cartoons, songs with the appropriate hand motions, or a week every summer of brightly covered walls and crafts and snacks. But ultimately, no matter what way we do it, we are pouring forth the same Jesus that has saved and held generation after generation.
Perspective at its finest.
Linking up with Kristen, Rachel, June, Kim
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