The past month has literally passed like none other. Many of you know that Abby, my mom, and I went to visit my brother & his family in Brussels, Belgium. We had an incredible time. It was an invaluable experience for all of us. One of the things that literally changed my life was the trip that my brother and I took to Paris.
There have been several times throughout the years when things have happened and I have paused and thought to myself,"Don't forget what's happening right now." When a close friends' children were recently adopted I took a mental snapshot of all that was wrapped up in that one moment for me . When Greg was ordained and his friends, who were from our time of ministry back at Sagemont drove in to pray over him during the service, time stopped. When Abby was born and Amazing Love was playing in the background, my arms were tied down because of the surgery and I turned my hands up to thank God for her and the moment. When I stepped off of the plane returning from India, Australia, Mexico, & Amsterdam I marked a tab in my mind. When the judge's gavel hit loud and hard saying, "She is your daughter"-my life was altered. The day my dad died, the letter my great aunt gave me, the day Greg told me that he loved me, the first time Lucy looked straight into the camera, all of these things define my life to me.
I was not prepared, however, for the impact of this trip.
My brother and I left from Brussels, with Abby and his three teenagers at 7:00 the morning after our arrival. My mom was planning on making the trip and wound up being sick that day. It was all new to me. We rode the metro to the train station. The train was crazy. 200 miles an hour while drinking espresso. Of course, the first stop was The Eiffel Tower. Kyle brought me up beside the tower...so I wasn't expecting it when he said, "Hey, look over there!" It was really amazing. We went everywhere. Notre Dame, an incredible CityView tower where we saw a 360 view of Paris, anything you can think of we walked to. Later in the afternoon Kyle asked if we wanted to go to The Louvre. We all agreed. I was exhausted already and it had begun to get a little warm. We stood in line and we finally got in. There were thousands of people there. At on point my brother and I looked at each other and started laughing and I said, "It's Wednesday and all of these people are here. We, like everyone else there, wanted to hit the high points. We were off to find The Mona Lisa. Well, we found her surrounded by people from every tribe, tongue and nation. I grabbed Abby's arm and pulled her, pushing and shoving, to the front for a quick glimpse of this painting I have heard about for 39 years. We quickly snapped and gawked and moved out of the way. And I did have "a moment" there...but not the one I am writing about here.
At this point, we all divided up. The kids were funny because, well, they are kids. They won't really appreciate any of this for about 20 more years. Kyle and I continued to look. As I began to be taken in by the magnificent wonders that I was seeing, most I did not even know existed until that minute, I began to feel extremely small. Even as I type this I am aware of how shallow and flat my description is. There were so many paintings of Christ. I was really interested in how the painters would depict His humanity and mortality. What made them choose the scene that they had painted? What about Christ nursing, clinging, eating with friends, discussing at the table important truths all the while children rolled on the floor with their pet dog and servants served in the background, made them see Him as He was. Of all of the scenes that had captured them- this was the one. Seriously, if you have ever been there you can concur, there were so many portrayals of Christ that I forgot that other paintings might be unrelated. At one point I saw a portrait of a man and I thought, "Huh, who is he? Is this a theologian? Is this a martyr?" The placard read something like this, "Man on the Street". Wow. I had viewed so may pictures of Jesus Christ that I began to see every other work in relationship to Him. I saw this man and thought, "What is his context...in relationship to Jesus?" The heaviness of this landed on me with such gravity that I had to stop because I was so overwhelmed with emotion. All of life, all of creation, all the earthiness of every moment finds it's meaning in relationship to Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." How are we changed? By beholding Him. Even in worship, I worship as a receiver. "We love because He first loved us." I have this picture of what i think "the Day of the Lord" will look like. I think it will feel very similar to that moment. I am falling forward because of the weight of His glory and all things are simultaneously circling Him and suddenly it all makes sense.
By the way, the Man on the Street is there too...
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