Advent Word of the Day - Glory

Dec. 5 - Word of the Day - Glory

Ok. I gotta be honest. I wasn’t feeling this word today. There are too many things going on that are out of my control and I am not in a “worshipful praise” state of mind. On my way out of the library the new gnome display caught my eye (we have a fairy and gnome theme this month in the children’s section) and I recognized the spine of one of the books. It was an old United Methodist hymnal, just like the ones that I sang from week after week when I was little. So I snapped a quick picture with my phone thinking maybe I can write something using that old hymnal as inspiration.

Except, it is not the hymnal that inspired me, it was the gnomes. 

I’m sure at the beginning of the day the gnomes were posed nicely with the mushrooms decoratively placed all around them while they sipped on a lovely mug of hot cocoa. But I didn’t notice them until the end of the day, after children had bumped into the table one too many times and tried to grab at them with slimy fingers. At the end of the day one of the gnomes had fallen over along with a few mushrooms and all three of the gnomes looked like they had been imbibing in something a little stronger than cocoa. They looked how I felt.

And they reminded me of the shepherds.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” Luke 2:8

There they were, doing what shepherds do. Still working after the sun had set (like me). The shepherds probably looked like the library gnomes after a long day. I can just picture one of the shepherds sprawled out on a hill like the gnome at the top of the books. They probably weren’t feeling a whole lot of worshipful praise either. More than likely they were feeling exhausted (like me).

Until … something unexpected happened. The glory of God broke through the routine of the day.

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,

    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” Luke 2:13-14

There is a good chance that I will never be sung to by a chorus of heavenly beings in the middle of the night, but I can experience the glory of God even when I’m not “feeling it.”

Looking back on the day, I experienced the glory of God while laughing with the church staff this morning. I experienced the glory of God when I helped a girl find the Garfield books. I experienced the glory of God when I taught some new teen volunteers how to shelve books. I experienced the glory of God when I saw that hymnal and had memories of singing in my childhood church. I experienced the glory of God when I talked to my husband about the frustrations of the day and I am experiencing the glory of God as I write this and I am able to view my day with fresh eyes.

I was so focused on the spine of the book that I almost missed the big picture.

I was so focused on my problems that I almost missed the glory.

“God’s glory resides in the stuff of everyday life, just waiting to be seen.” – Rachel Held Evans

Open your eyes to the glory of this day.