Friday, December 3, 2010

Holy moments

Yesterday, I received a weekly e-mail update from my church. Reading through the information about worship and activities for next week, I clicked on the YouTube link – Hallelujah in the Mall – “to put some lift in your holiday spirit”. As I watched the video, a peaceful feeling came over me. The video showed an outbreak of the Hallelujah Chorus from choir members strategically seated in the mall’s eatery. As the shoppers caught on to what was happening, a holy hush came over the crowd. The highlight for me was a brief moment captured by the videographer where a mother lovingly reached down to hold her young child’s hand. By the end of the Chorus, many of the observers were on their feet singing with the choir and lifting holy hands in praise to God Almighty. It was a holy moment in the midst of the Christmas rush. (Check out the link at http://www.youtube.com/user/AlphabetPhotography.)

This is the essence of Christmas. We need to put aside the busyness of the season – the absorption in the shopping, gift wrapping, decorating, and parties - and reach out in love to create holy moments offering praise to God for the indescribable gift of His Son Jesus who came to offer us peace and eternal life.

At Hope Alive, we experience holy moments almost every day with the lavish outpouring of love and compassion that we receive this time of year – from the bountiful Thanksgiving meal provided for our resident families to the hand crocheted caps and blankets made by loving hands for our two new babies on the way to the caring notes of encouragement and support written by donors and volunteers. Through every act of kindness and love, we experience the presence and love of God – truly a holy moment!

Please take time to share your holy moments with us and others to help us focus on the real reason for the season. May you and your family be blessed with a peace-filled holy holiday.

Until next week …

Sue Oehmig
Founder and Executive Director

P.S. Remember to use GoodShop - http://www.goodsearch.com/goodshop.aspx - for your online holiday shopping (complete with coupons) to take the stress out of your days. And by choosing Hope Alive as your charity, your gift giving will also benefit our resident families!

No comments:

Post a Comment