What Did You See?

Part of our spiritual practice as a team has been sharing each day, “what did you see?”  On Sunday, Pastor Manuel invited Pastor Ken Godshall, one of our Kentucky team members, to preach.  Pastor Manuel leads a Iglesia Metodista in San Antonio where much of our time is being spent this week. The relationships with Pastor Manuel and his family, the John Wesley School, the community, etc. go back many years. The church continues to flourish; it is all beautiful.

Pastor Ken preached from the 9th chapter of John and shared the story of Jesus healing the blind man. We were all reminded of what it is to be spiritually blind as we considered what it might be like to be physically blind. We have encountered many people with vision problems at the clinic. Do you remember your first pair of glasses? When you found out the leaves on the trees were individual beautiful leaves that create the fullness of a tree’s shape? Those first glimpses open up a whole new world…

I met Rut Noemi in worship. In our English language that might be “Ruth Naomi”. We sat together. I had in my hand a song sheet that our teams have been carrying around for many years. Sarah McGinley, one of the first people from our church to  worship at Pastor Manuel’s 15-20 years ago, created these music sheets for us. And about 4 years ago two of our team members translated each song so that the song sheet has both English and Spanish lyrics.  These sheets have been a lifeline for me on several occasions. Rut Noemi was looking over at the paper in my lap. And this is what I saw:

God is bringing cultures together for God’s glory. What once separated us (distance, language, culture, shape, size, abilities, money, etc) is being removed so fast it is like water being held in our hands….it just overflows and slips through.  Rut Noemi wrote her name in my journal and we began to pass notes in church. (Please don’t tell Pastor Ken).  We agreed that she would take the sheet and teach the songs to her amigos. They are Spanish songs so they will know most of the tunes.  With the lyric sheet they can learn English words from familiar songs, just like we learn Spanish by singing the songs of this culture.

Sometimes it doesn’t take the formality of a class or the expense of a teacher. It doesn’t always have to be perfectly arranged or even complete .Sometimes it is seeing what God has given us in a specific moment and sharing it with someone who has the curiosity and desire to see more.

Sunday worship was awesome.  Our team sang in Spanish as part of our greeting from the KY and TN churches; their children sang for us. We all lifted our voices for prayer, for praise, for Joy. Our common bond is the One we worship, and oh how powerful that bond continues to be! A line from our prayer in Ephesians comes to mind: “so that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, adn his incomparable great power for us who believe.” – Ephesians 1:18-19)

Many of us have someone in our lives that is going blind or has already lost their sight. All of us have spiritual blindness.  And isn’t it wonderful to know that at any given moment in our lives, we are invited to see what the LORD is doing right before our eyes. Let it be.

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