Searching for Sudden Glory

“For in Him we live and move and have our being…”  Acts 17: 28

I recently finished a wonderful book entitled Sudden Glory by Sharon Jaynes.  In it, Sharon talks about looking for God in the everyday, being able to recognize Him move.  She writes about the experience of God through not only the grand, memorable moments, but through the small things as He makes Himself known to us.  Sharon says our ability to tune into God as we live and move and have our being in Christ, to experience sudden glories in both the miraculous and the mundane, hinges on an atmosphere of expectation within us.    At her prompting, after finishing the book, I began recording my own Sudden Glory moments in a small journal.  But like anything else, after a few days of dutifully recording those precious moments, I put the journal aside and haven’t picked it up since.

Most mornings I find myself pouring out long ramblings into the air from my head.  I’m an overthinker, and God’s gotten pretty used to my processing everything aloud and in His direction.  What I have learned, however, is that Sudden Glory moments happen when I am quiet.  God has manners, I’m convinced, and wouldn’t dream of talking over us or interrupting.  So long as I am rambling and focused on myself, my prayers, my petitions, He will politely wait.   I am getting better at being quiet and looking for Him throughout the day, but the practice of recording those moments has fallen away.

Today’s Sudden Glory moment, however, swept me up and away enough to make me want to record it here.

While waiting for my first client to arrive, I looked out the backdoor at the two-tone sky.  In the foreground, thick grayness hung low and threatening.  But behind it, the bluest of blue pulled my eyes up and away.  Wisps of white were highlighted in the distance by some far off sun.   “Sudden Glory,” I breathed.  “Wow!”  Just before moving away from the door, I realized God wasn’t finished yet.  As if adding the final brush strokes, the most beautiful rainbow appeared.  Colors so vibrant against the gray background nearly tricked me into thinking if I reached for it I could touch it.

Still smiling over God’s handiwork, which I was convinced was just for me, I began my first massage of the day.   One of the many things I love about my profession is the ability to work in silence.  Today was no exception.   I had never thought of my work as “laying on of hands” until recently one of my dearest friends described what I do as exactly that.  She reminded me that my work was sacred.   With that in mind, my hands glided over my client’s back as I breathed a small prayer.  “You are good, Lord.  May You use me to meet her healing needs and may she experience You through me.”  Thirty minutes passed like five.  Again, Sudden Glory revealed itself in my work.

When the massage had concluded and my client had gone, I walked back to the screen door.  The rainbow had faded.  There was no trace of it in the sky, but the contentment in my heart remained.

“Thank you, Father,” I whispered.  “That was awesome.”

As I started to turn away from the door, an adolescent female Cardinal landed on the deck railing.  Her feathers still downy and wild, she looked like someone had dried her with a hairdryer.  She squacked and hopped back and forth.   God was outdoing Himself today.   His Sudden Glory was everywhere I looked.

I believe Sudden Glory is everywhere we look.   We just fail to see it.  Many times, we are just too busy to acknowledge Him.   God wants us to be in union with Him.  Seeing His hand, hearing His voice requires less “out there” and more quiet time.  Less looking at screens and more looking toward the sky.    Less occupying our minds and more sitting quietly.

We don’t need to feel so desperate trying to “find” God.  We don’t need to grope for Him looking in some far off place.   God is really not far away at all, and we can have fellowship with Him at any time.   In fact, every day we depend on Him for our very life and breath…for in Him we live and move and have our being.