Revelation Friday 5

Sally brings us this week's Friday Five. She says, "With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently.So with no further waffle I offer you this weeks Friday 5:"How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:

1. Book Oh where to begin? God has been revealing truth and Truth to me in the written word since I taught myself to read at age four. In Dr. Seuss and AA Milne, in L'Engle and Laura Ingalls Wilder...all truths about life and living and love as I could apprehend them with my child's mind. And more as life goes on..., poets and mystics, novelists and humorists.....too many to ever remember, in some ways too many for one to be "the one" beyond the obvious. The Bible, the Book of Common Prayer....those places of first solace and last comfort. Right now I am much enjoying Nan Gilbert's Psalms for Praying. God is revealed new and fresh there for me daily.

2.Film Another hard one....so many through time....Brother Sun, Sister Moon had a huge impact on me as a teen. The story of Francis and Clare, it rocked my world. The Green Mile, Pay it Forward, Philadelphia, Mr. Holland's Opus, all at particular times and places were revealed truth. It's kind of a comment on the insane pace of recent life that I can't even think of many films I've seen in the last year or so. One that did strike the chord was Into Great Silence. Different, riveting and powerful.

3. Song Oh, dear. Can't have just one there either. The big stuff always says God to me, Handel, Bach, chorales and symphonies. But so does chant. Music has been woven into my spiritual life from so early on. If I am at all on the edge I can be reduced to a weeping heap by almost any hymn at any time....doesn't even matter if it's sung well! One that has been very dear to me lately has been Fernando Ortega's Give me Jesus. It rode with me through Lent as a result of one of the Wednesday evenings I shared with my Presbyterian friends, and it brings me such comfort whenever I hear it.

4. Another person Well you know I just have to plural this one up and say other persons.....the persons who shared the aft starboard and other various and sundry spots aboard the BE ship. God was revealed over and over among us in sharing and laughter and tears, in conversation and dancing and seeing beauty together, in making new discoveries and finding common ground. We each had a word for the week. Mine was "Advocate." Among other things, it made me think about Pentecost and the birth of the church. At our closing Eucharist, I shared this with the group and told them that I thought that the way we were there might have been kind of what Jesus had in mind.

5. Creation Forgive me if I "go BE" again. The picture above is sunset in the Gulf of Mexico. And that was only the first night. The incredible endless shades of blue of water, the lovely variations of brown and tan and white and pink of skin of people of many nations all getting along pretty well together on our floating island. Birds and flowers on Cozumel. The struggle back to life in NOLA. The creation of new friendships. Grace abounds!

Bonus answer: your choice- share something encouraging/ amazing/ humbling that has happened to you recently! Again it is hard to narrow this....it could be twelve blog posts! But as I look at these three words, I have to say that there is one thing that fits all three. There is a lot going on right now in my life. A lot of upheaval and changes, a lot that is hard. The person most affected by this (other than me) has every right to be angry and mean-spirited about the whole thing but instead is choosing to see this as an opportunity for growth. Instead of being blamed and recriminated, I am being encouraged and supported and offered the understanding that I am making the choices I am making because I really could make no others. That is encouraging/amazing/humbling. That is blessing. That is God revealed.