Cameron always kicked off his shoes before he led us into worship.

Desert

Disentanglement

Shake loose all that binds and chokes

Fly free, O my soul.

For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, my hope is in Him.  Psalm 62:6

Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand;

Ponder nothing earthly minded, For with blessing is His hand,

Christ our God to earth descendeth, Our full homage to demand.

The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast, for until the cord be broken, the bird cannot fly.  -John of the Cross

Today in the silence as I sift through the Eucharist-always-precedes-the-miracle lists, what I am reminded of again and again is that there is no random thread with the Master Weaver.

Tuesday we had a “Make and Take” meeting in the Bonillas library, complete with hot chocolate and warm cookies. The plan was to provide parents with a dozen activities to do with the kiddos over the holidays, and it was more or less successful.

One of the projects was weaving a God’s Eye from yarn and popsicle sticks. And the art teacher and I had sort of forgotten exactly how to do this blast-from-the-past relic that hangs from so many Christmas trees. So there was some awkward twisting and winding and pretty much I was the only one in the room who could knot the ends of yarn, but when each eye was flipped over, it all made beautiful sense and the backside bumps did not matter at all.

And Dustin wrote another piece today reflecting on the year of journey.

That said, we visited the caves and pagodas of Danang’s Marble Mountains yesterday and DUUUUUDDDEEE it was incredible. We wandered up polished steps to a temple, scrambled through caves to reach mountaintop views of the humidity-drenched city, and saw a ton of Buddha statues. Everette immediately noticed Korean women removing their shoes, approaching a statue, and repeatedly bowing before Mr. Buddha (astute observer that she is) and so she immediately also began reverently removing her knock-off Crocs and lying prostrate on the marble floors herself. 

And that is something that the all His peoples get, the need to prostrate fall. I remember Cameron always kicking off his shoes before he led us into worship.

When my chimes went off last night and Dre asked about them, I did not do a good job articulating my intent. A reminder to exhale deeply all of me, and breathe in deeply all of Him.

May I too kick off my figurative Crocs.

Again and again, if need be.

Selah.