Time Flies

This week is getting away from me. I have been thinking of how I wanted to reflect on last weekend but just haven't taken the time to sit and write it. Now it's Thursday and I'm leaving for Greece tomorrow! If I don't write something, I may actually forget the emotion of that moment.

It was an ordinary Sunday. Not Easter, Christmas, Mother's Day or Father's Day. Just March 7. Nothing special to a lot of people but a bit of a ground-rumbling for me. (I was going to say 'earthquake' but I think that is still to come!).

Aaron came to church.

Sure, we told him we'd buy him a tank of gas for doing so, but we've told him that a million times before and he didn't come. This Sunday was important in so many ways. The night before, he decided to 'man-up' to some things going on in his life, and we had a heart-to-heart that could have broken our hearts if not for the direction he so desperately wants to head toward. He wants to walk away from choices that have pulled him down to places he never dreamed he would go. And he's started taking steps -- on his own as well as with the help of friends -- toward a freedom he hasn't known in a long time.

So, Aaron coming to church was, in a sense, a gesture ... a willingness to show respect for something we value ... a willingness to join us as a family (Sarah was in town for spring break) ... a willingness to be in God's house and be with God's people.

It's hard to explain how important this simple gesture is to me. Perhaps if you knew how many times it's been slapped down, mocked, and ignored, you'd understand better. But I don't think you can understand until you've been there. And honestly, I am a bit scarred from that particular part of the journey. So now, I turn my head to stop looking back through the scars, and ahead to what God can do with the one simple gesture.

I'm thinking that ordinary days are a perfect setting for God's extraordinary work. Looking forward to another day like March 7.