{"id":3666,"date":"2017-12-16T12:45:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-16T12:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2017-12-16T12:45:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-16T12:45:12","slug":"o-tidings-of-wonder-and-joy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/o-tidings-of-wonder-and-joy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"O Tidings of Wonder and Joy."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think sometimes we lock God up in church and don&#8217;t let Him meet us anywhere else. We banish him from our everyday activities. Not on purpose, it&#8217;s just that we think sports, music, nature, emotions and friendships, are for us and church is for God.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s really too bad because we limit God&#8217;s loving ways. The Holy Spirit (God&#8217;s love) comes to us in so many ways. One of his favorite tricks is to play &#8220;Peek a Boo&#8221;. God gives us flashes of his royal robe. He opens our eyes to see what is hidden in the everyday.<\/p>\n<p>What is this experience? It&#8217;s called Wonder. Children have it all the time. Hopefully you&#8217;ve had it too. It starts with a simple observation of life around us and leads to a &#8220;moment&#8221; where we experience the sheer beauty or power or mystery contained in what we are observing.<\/p>\n<p>Words sort of fail us. We can&#8217;t describe what we&#8217;ve heard or seen. But we know what it feels like. It feels like we&#8217;re in the presence of a masterpiece, something exquisite to overwhelm us with beauty or emotion or truth or mystery.<\/p>\n<p>But what&#8217;s best about these moments (the wonder part) is the question left hanging in the air: &#8220;WHERE did this come from?!&#8221; Or perhaps more accurately, &#8220;How can this be?&#8221; and &#8220;Why does this effect me so deeply?!&#8221; . . . It&#8217;s God, silly . . . trying to get your attention.<\/p>\n<p>Any one of these can be an occasion for wonder:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-left:10px;\">\n<li>The ocean, the waves, the horizon<\/li>\n<li>Seagulls riding a lake breeze<\/li>\n<li>The strict salute of a young soldier<\/li>\n<li>The folds and color of a rose<\/li>\n<li>A baby&#8217;s smell<\/li>\n<li>The eyes of a child<\/li>\n<li>The full moon on new snow<\/li>\n<li>A Tea Party with your granddaughter<\/li>\n<li>A lover&#8217;s first spoken &#8220;I love you&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Hearing &#8220;I love you&#8221; back<\/li>\n<li>A base hit in little league<\/li>\n<li>The day you could finally ride a bike<\/li>\n<li>Sitting on your dad&#8217;s lap, playing with his giant fingers<\/li>\n<li>Really hearing a great piece of music<\/li>\n<li>Sitting in an empty cathedral<\/li>\n<li>Tears upon finishing some effort that took everything you had<\/li>\n<li>Burying a parent<\/li>\n<li>Holding a grandchild<\/li>\n<li>Winning a game in triple overtime<\/li>\n<li>Losing a game in triple overtime<\/li>\n<li>Watching the snow fall<\/li>\n<li>Counting the stars at night<\/li>\n<li>(What would you add for your wonderments . . . . ?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Moments of wonder can open a window through which we catch a glimpse of a world filled with a beauty and mystery that far surpasses our ability to fully understand it. Yet it will not let us leave that place without whispering to us . . . &#8220;See that? Did you like that? . . . It&#8217;s only a shadow of my love for you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read psalm 139 for a beautiful moment of wonder. It all leads to a surrender to faith . . . &#8220;Oh Lord, How great you are. Thank you for letting me live and have my being. Thank you for letting me see\/feel this moment&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr class=\"style-two\" \/>\n<p>I hope you take time this Advent Season to experience the beauty of this world and of our lives as human beings. Don&#8217;t try too hard though. Just let the moment be what it wants to be in you.<\/p>\n<p>Remember God loves you and made this world for all of us.<\/p>\n<p>Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel <\/p>\n<p>Fr. 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We banish him from our everyday activities. Not on purpose, it&#8217;s just that we think sports, music, nature, emotions and friendships, are for us and church is for God. It&#8217;s really too bad because we limit God&#8217;s loving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3667,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holytrinityweb.com\/weekly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}