Published Jan. 19, 2016
In the movie, The Sound of Music, Maria, the lead actor played by Julie Andrews sings a song called, “These are a few of my favourite things”. The first line reads as follows, “raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens/ bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens…. “. She sings this song to the children that she is in charge of at the home of Captain von Trapp. There is a thunderstorm and all the kids find their way to her bedroom, and she sings this song to comfort them as they hear the thunder.
I was wondering where you have seen God at work in your whole life story? What have been you most favourite things in your life, where you knew God was there? I have heard people talk about events that have happened even before they were born, where other people have said where God was working. Sometimes in our life, we pray, and we ask God to intervene, and act very quickly. It does not happen.
God is beyond the words that we use to describe God’s activity in the world. I understand and believe that God listens to all of our prayers. This could mean that God must listen to the prayers of seven billion people everyday. I cannot even listen to the prayers of ten people in the course of my everyday life. Listening to all of these words and thoughts is even beyond quantum physics or computing. So God is eternal, and beyond my earthly descriptions. So, how does God, the Divine One, show himself to everyday life here on earth? What might I see today, where I can experience the presence of God here in Elmira, or Floradale or Conestogo?
These are some of my favourite things, or some of the times, where I have experienced the presence of the God. On Sunday September January 17th, I returned to the pulpit at the Floradale Mennonite Church. I had developed an eye palsy problem brought on by my own stress. I believe God was there on Sunday, before, during and after my sermon. I believe God was in my eye as well, during the three months that I was off of work. I cannot precisely say that God was in this word or that word on this past Sunday, but I believe that the the Spirit of the living God was there, at least for me.
My sister, Charlotte and I held the hand of our dad as he breathed his last breath here on earth. The doves that came out of the tree during our wedding ceremony. My mom’s family arrived in Montreal in late summer 1926. And when Menno Simons picked up his Bible in around 1510, and read it with different eyes. I would say God was there in all of these things, even if I was not there.
Or God was in all that snow that fell this week. Was it the beauty of the snow falling or was it in the plows that cleared it away so we could all drive to work or home? In one of his first things that Jesus did when he lived here as a human was preach a sermon in his hometown. He quoted from a prophet from over 500 years before he was born, and it said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” Where was God this morning for you? or yesterday? Where are the favourite things of God that you might see and hear and taste today?
Fred Redekop