Missing the Lightning Flash?

       On Friday evening, a group from my Sunday School class accepted the invitation of a Jewish friend to visit the Synagogue where she attends.  There is a small congregation, and the rabbi just comes to Hickory once a month for Friday evening/Saturday morning Sabbath services -- sort of like the circuit-riding preachers from long ago.  Almost all the singing was in Hebrew, but some was written phonetically in the prayer book they gave us, so I did my best to sing along on those songs. I noticed that Baptists aren't the only ones who like to sit on the back row -- but they had a moving partition so they could make a new back row when the place started to fill up, so even the late-comers could get a seat in the back!  Also like Baptists, they like to eat -- one lady laughingly said that they never meet without eating.  My kind of group!
     They welcomed visitors with open arms, and even with such a different kind of service, I was not uncomfortable.  They worshiped the same God -- but just left off the Good News from the New Testament.  I was very interested in seeing the Torah, and when I asked about it after the service, some of them eagerly and reverently took it out from behind the curtain, removed the beautiful cover, and opened the scrolls for me to see the handwritten words.  It was very old, so they used this pointer thing -- can't remember the name of it -- instead of touching it with their own fingers.  It also was all in Hebrew, so I couldn't read a word, but I appreciated their respect for it.

    I was also very touched by some of the words in the prayer book, and I copied them down on a scrap of paper so I could  read and think about them again.
    "Days pass and years vanish, we walk sightless among miracles.  Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing.  Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk."
     That is exactly what I call a "God Wink" -- a moment when I am reminded of God's presence, sometimes like lightning illuminating a dark night. We walk through life with our eyes and minds so oblivious to the powerful messages from God that are available to us -- walking "sightless among miracles."  What unexpected, eye-opening lightning flashes from God am I missing every day?

He Sent a Rainbow

   Driving to school today with a lot on my mind -- feeling a little overwhelmed -- when all of a sudden I had a reminder that God was still in control. I caught sight of a rainbow as I approached the school, and when I pulled in the parking lot, there it was, right over the school!  And not just a regular rainbow, but a double one (not really showing much in my picture, but it was there.)  So I walked in feeling a little lighter -- isn't God good??!