I want to tell you about something that metaphorically took my breath away and caused my heart to skip a beat.
My nephew Nathan and his wife Mindy have been expecting their first child. Last week Mindy gave birth to a little girl, which in my tribe of the Bryan clan is a bit rare. And here is the thing: they named her Georgie.
Georgie is not a very common name, but it was my mother’s name. I never expected Nathan and Mindy to choose Georgie. I heard about it from my baby brother, the proud grandfather. He was “deadpanning” it and when I asked the name and he told me, I went silent on the phone. I was so grateful to Nathan and Mindy, and I was so moved by an unexpected, deep emotional connection that I felt not only to this new addition to my family, but well… to my long-deceased mother.
My daughter, Anna, is visiting Georgie and the rest of the family right now. I know that to most of you that last sentence is nice enough, but to me it transcends time. Let me tell you what I mean. Anna was on the phone telling me that she was holding Georgie and remembering Grandma Georgie at the same time. When she said that, my heart skipped a beat. I stopped breathing for a minute as an image came to me of my daughter holding Georgie in one arm with Grandma Georgie sitting close on the other side of Anna with her arms around them both.
When things like this happen to me, I really don’t try to explain them or describe them but just be with them. Maybe that is why telling all of you about this now is a little awkward. You don’t know what my daughter or either of the Georgies look like, so you can’t possibly paint this picture in your head. I am not going to photoshop together this precious moment…so why tell you about it all?
Here’s why: My guess is that most of us have had an experience like this: We hear some news that for the rest of the world is a nice piece of information, but what we hear goes beyond that; it transcends the boundaries of our mental deliberations and reaches down to a place that some call our heart and others call our soul. It lands so deep within us that we are unable to control its impact, and then our hearts skip a beat or breath is taken away…When this happens, my friends, it is God’s heart beating within us…It is the breath of God stirring us to claim that, as the poet reminds us, “love is bigger than anything in its way…”
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
My nephew Nathan and his wife Mindy have been expecting their first child. Last week Mindy gave birth to a little girl, which in my tribe of the Bryan clan is a bit rare. And here is the thing: they named her Georgie.
Georgie is not a very common name, but it was my mother’s name. I never expected Nathan and Mindy to choose Georgie. I heard about it from my baby brother, the proud grandfather. He was “deadpanning” it and when I asked the name and he told me, I went silent on the phone. I was so grateful to Nathan and Mindy, and I was so moved by an unexpected, deep emotional connection that I felt not only to this new addition to my family, but well… to my long-deceased mother.
My daughter, Anna, is visiting Georgie and the rest of the family right now. I know that to most of you that last sentence is nice enough, but to me it transcends time. Let me tell you what I mean. Anna was on the phone telling me that she was holding Georgie and remembering Grandma Georgie at the same time. When she said that, my heart skipped a beat. I stopped breathing for a minute as an image came to me of my daughter holding Georgie in one arm with Grandma Georgie sitting close on the other side of Anna with her arms around them both.
When things like this happen to me, I really don’t try to explain them or describe them but just be with them. Maybe that is why telling all of you about this now is a little awkward. You don’t know what my daughter or either of the Georgies look like, so you can’t possibly paint this picture in your head. I am not going to photoshop together this precious moment…so why tell you about it all?
Here’s why: My guess is that most of us have had an experience like this: We hear some news that for the rest of the world is a nice piece of information, but what we hear goes beyond that; it transcends the boundaries of our mental deliberations and reaches down to a place that some call our heart and others call our soul. It lands so deep within us that we are unable to control its impact, and then our hearts skip a beat or breath is taken away…When this happens, my friends, it is God’s heart beating within us…It is the breath of God stirring us to claim that, as the poet reminds us, “love is bigger than anything in its way…”
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan
RSS Feed
