This past weekend my husband John and I preached together at our church. It’s always such an overwhelming and…sobering (?), scary (?) privilege to preach and ask for God’s voice to drown out anything of “us” that might distract.
We spoke on Mary and finding joy in the midst of any circumstances. That was all fine, but then God totally messed with me.
In our sermon I shared about an experience I had had the night before. I went to a dinner celebrating the birthday and an anniversary of sorts for a dear friend of mine. Each of us gathered there brought a word or words to share that communicated some of the incredible value our friend has brought into our lives. As we shared, our words were written in gold marker on a glass hurricane with a candle inside to be a reminder to her when she lights it, that words like beautiful, effervescent, intentional, and wise advisor describe how God is using her in the world. It was a privilege to speak these words of truth to my friend.
In our sermon I said that most people don’t get to hear words of value and affirmation spoken over them by friends like that, but God desires to whisper His words of love to us every minute. Mary’s joy and peace came from the fact that she knew who she was and whose she was.
