Tethered by holy moments
My friend experienced unimaginable, intense grief as she buried her six year old son after a battle with cancer. Our family had witnessed their testimony of faithfulness during a season of life that could seem void of hope. I remember her saying, “I’ve stared death in the face, I would like to see life in the same way.”
Just weeks later we found out we were expecting our son, Cole, and the night before my induction I called my friend and asked her to be in the delivery room with me. I wanted her to stare down life entering the world in the same way she stared down death.
Gathering in her living room the morning after her son Joey’s death and then gathering in the hospital room staring at my son as he took his first breath tethered our souls together. Our experiences were vastly different but she allowed me to enter the space with her. She welcomed a young, very naive friend (as it pertained to the process of death and grief) into her experience.
When we experience God's orchestrated moments and see them not as haphazard, but part of His mercy and grace, it draws us in. When we allow others into both joy and pain, we invite them to see God’s handprint on the story of our lives.
In Acts 2:1, the disciples are gathered together, in one place. They had experienced great loss in the death of their best friend and Savior – great mourning had happened. They had experienced great joy as they experienced His Resurrection – they had hope in eternity. They were gathered together in a holy moment when God revealed an intimate part of Himself to them by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. He desired to be closer than humanly possible, to dwell with them. Their souls were tethered together because of shared holy moments.
God desires to reveal Himself in holy moments because He wants our connection to Himself and our connection to others to be both tangible and confirmed. To experience God revealing Himself to me gives me a framework and a confidence of my faith.
How do we ensure we don’t miss these opportunities?
- Gather often
- Gather with expectation
- Gather then reflect
God is still moving and working. He is still revealing Himself. He is still drawing us near.
He is still tethering souls in shared holy moments, both to Himself and to the humanity He adores.