Music Mondays

God with us ~ God with you ~ not just when you are aware and awake to God's persistent presence ~ but all the time.  In every space and place...not in some building confining or when we call somewhere, "Holy"...for every bush is ablaze with the glory of God ~ only most of the time we don't see it that way.

The incarnation ~ God coming to us in the flesh and form of Jesus ~ was the church's way of saying God is not distant or disinterested in this world.  This was not an original idea.  Remember in Genesis 2, God walks in the garden among God's people (even though Adam and Eve hid...perhaps telling us that we hide from God too - not the other way around).  Then in Exodus, God pitches God's tent among God's people.  God is with them.  Then in exile, Ezekiel has a vision of God on a chariot coming to Babylonia; God not in a temple but in the very space and place where the people are.

The incarnation ~ wasn't the first time Scripture tried to tell us God surrounds us.  The mystics have said it over the years too.  God is the circle who center is everywhere and whose circumference is no where.  God's embrace enfolds all realms and races and realities.

To radically (which really just means from the roots) practice the presence of God that is the invitation.  The hymn above says it better than I can.  In this very room...the one I am writing from and the one you are reading these words...in this very room there is quite enough love and joy and power because in this very room is more than a trace of God's grace.

I pray the melody of this music moves your soul to remember no matter where you are...God is.  And may the abundant traces of God's presence enliven your life every day.  Amen.