holy experience
By Belinda

The supper dishes are cleared away and the dishwasher softly swishes them clean in the nearby kitchen. The cranberry coloured tablecloth lies in a heap on a side table, ready for the crumbs to be shaken outside into the night at the end of the evening. The table pad is neatly folded, ready for the next meal around the long, oval pine table.

A group of friends settles into either easy chairs or the ochre leather couch. Anticipation hangs in the air along with the scent of an apple cinnamon candle.

Jane, a woman in her mid fifties, with short gray hair and dancing eyes, looks around the room with a smile as she prepares to start our cell group study. She leads the group with a deliberate, animated style.

The lights in the two adjoining rooms are off, and outside the night is dark. Our circle of friends seems to sit in a pool of light.

I suddenly have a moment of intense joy.

Barb, Jane's friend, asks, "Belinda, were you about to say something?"

And I try to explain how I imagined someone looking in from the darkness outside through one of the five windows that surround the room--or perhaps looking down from somewhere high above our house. What a happy scene they would observe, I thought; and how glad I was in that moment, to be there; with friends; gathered to read, learn and share our thoughts.

I stop, suddenly feeling slightly embarrassed at my outburst of extreme joy. Indeed, Susan, who is sitting next to me on the couch, smiles at me with a slightly incredulous expression in her eyes.

But I am so grateful for Thursday evening; a table of fellowship; a gathering of friends; and the promise of Jesus that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is with us.

Matthew 18:20 (New International Version)
20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Comments

Marilyn Yocum said…
It is RICH, a gathering such as this. I hope someone DID catch a glimpse through the window and that a craving for the warmth of fellowship was stirred.
9:36 AM
Susan said…
Um, that "slightly incredulous expression" in my eyes was only because I was experiencing a sense of pure delight in a friend who is at once so wise, and genteel while at the same time maintaining a whimsical sense of child-like wonder that continually blows me away. You have the enviable (and purely delightful) ability to see and appreciate the profound in the simple. Don't be embarrassed. And please - don't ever stop!
6:00 PM
Belinda said…
Ha ha! Well, it's too late to change now, and truly, I do recognize the gift in the ability to deeply enjoy a moment in time--I just don't usually get caught doing it quite so overtly! :)
7:22 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c
Read more