Let Your Light Shine...

This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine?

Sometimes I wonder if who I am as a believer is conveyed to those around me.
I pray for bright eyes, for a soft heart,
for a spirit that speaks in spite of my too many words...
And yet, sometimes I question my witness, 
The ways that I help God's kingdom come to earth.

A few days ago, I was with my last class of the day.  Now, this class consists of two 5th grade girls, neither of which speaks much English.  So, they were working on vocabulary worksheets with me and suddenly they broke into conversation, in Spanish of course.  For a minute, I thought they were talking about a girl named Maria, but as I listened more closely, I realized that one was telling the other the entire story of Jesus Christ.  The other girl asked question after question..."How could God and Jesus be the same?"  "How could Mary have Jesus?"  And time after time, the other answered with patience and amazing clarity.

I sat there, mouth open...and at one point I interjected a few statements in my best Spanish...ha.  Then my heart swelled and my eyes welled up with tears.  We serve a great, big God...God is much bigger than our worries, our fears, our everydayness...our "ability" to share...

And God is LIGHT...I shine because I belong to God...God is a God of ALL people and languages.  Praise God for calling us as children, for shining in the midst of darkness around us AND within us.

Smallness...

"Lord of the Small"

Praise to the Lord of the Small Broken Things,
Who Sees the Poor Sparrow That cannot take wing.
Who loves the lame child and the wretch in the street
who comforts their sorrows and washes their feet.

Praise to the lord of the faint and afraid
who girds them with courage and lends them his aid,
he pours out his spirit on vessels so weak,
that the timid can serve and the silent can speak.

Praise to the lord of the frail and the ill
who heals their afflictions or carries them till,
they leave this tired frame and to paradise fly.
to never be sick and never to die.

Praise him, O Praise Him All ye who live
who`ve been given so much and can so little give
our frail lisping praise God will never despise.

         He sees his dear children with mercy filled eyes.

We sang this last week at church.  I've been reminded lately of my "smallness."  Yeah, you can make jokes...I'm not exactly a petite woman, but honestly, most of the time I feel like a little girl.  Sometimes I feel the smallness of my life...of the small things I do every day...hugging, exercising, sitting around with friends, preparing a meal, yelling at kids....and I feel the brokenness of myself and the world.  Things aren't set right every day.  Children leave school hungry.  Sometimes I am not satisfied with the day or life at that moment.  

And yet, God is a God of broken things,

of small, seemingly insignificant people,

of messed up days,

of hungry kids,

of massive hugs,

of the sick,

of the ones giving every ounce of their beings for the Kingdom,

and of those who feel like they have nothing left to give.

And in it all....in the broken, in the small, in the blundering and blubbering, and yes, in the joys (which I have many)....God is God...

God is mercy.

God is Spirit.

God can speak.

God washes our nasty feet.

Amen.  Praise God.  And so be it.