Listen

When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”

Luke 3:21-22

Think

Sometimes the line between heaven and earth seems very thin. When a person is being born or a person is dying, the connection between our lives here and our lives beyond seem very connected.

But most of our days are spent thinking about the here and now. We need to get our work done and put gas in our cars and call our moms. We need to stop by the grocery store and do our laundry and make holiday plans.

So many things fight for our earthly attention that heaven seems far away. But then something will happen and we will find ourselves in one of those “thin places” where time slows down and God seems near. The holy, the spirit, the divine, the eternal — these things come out of hiding and into our awareness, reminding us that God is with us. And if we listen, we also may hear God’s voice, reminding us that we are God’s dearly loved children and God is taking great joy in us.

Amy Bost Henegar

Pray

Gracious and eternal God, open my eyes to see you, to see glimpses of your truth and your reality throughout my daily life. Remind me to lift my eyes above the routine and look for the holy. Help me today. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Go

There’s a living stream, with a crystal gleam:
From the throne of life now it flows;
While the waters roll let the weary soul
Hear the call that forth freely goes.

Will you come to the fountain free?
Will you come? ’Tis for you and me;
Thirsty soul, hear the welcome call:
’Tis a fountain opened for all.

from “There’s a Fountain Free” by Mary B. Slade (1876)