One thing that has stuck with me most of today is a comment our guide made yesterday – “Jesus did not come to make stones holy, but to make people holy.” (He was talking about the question of historical/archealogical sites vs. “traditional” holy land sites.)
I have often been uncomfortable with talk of “god moments” or the idea that God is setting up for us a list of specific successes. Perhaps I’m bothered because that idea would suggest that he is also writing up a list of my mistakes and failures.
A couple of days ago, as someone was sharing a supposed “god moment”, it occurred to me that perhaps what she sees as god moments, I see as the result of relationships. As we share with others, care for them and about them, as we experience life with each other, we build the connections God intended for us. And when those connections lead to moments of “coincidence”, then I guess they really are God moments—direct results of living as God would have us live.
God entered our lives, entered into relationship with us to make us holy. In that decisive act, God invites us into the holy story of creation. It is a story that allows for coincidence and pain and love at first sight. It is an epic story with battles and blood and apparently Roman bathhouses. Sometimes it is a sad story and sometimes it is a story that stretches from the mountaintop to the valley to the very Sea of Life.
I suppose I’ve come here to the land of prophets and poets in search of my part in this story. I have come to the holy stones, only to find that it is not in the stones that one finds God.
Instead it is in my own heart, in my own story, the peace of these valleys may wash over me and renew my strength and sense of self. For indeed, Jesus did not come for the valleys or the mountains or the fish or the sea. Jesus came for me.
Well said, Katy. I am enjoying reading this!!
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