What causes that sense of awe? One thing is how far ahead God can plan. All our rational thoughts deny that God could set something in motion that will happen across millions or trillions of minutes. How could God ensure the foreign visitors for Jesus chose gold and frankincense as Isaiah foretold and not something else instead?
My own story of awe and wonder at the meeting (see https://tinahodgett.net/2022/01/awe-and-wonder-1/) was about my friend Alison who was staying with me at the time on holiday. 20 years ago she was leading a toddler group and slowly infusing it with prayer and Christian values, gossiping the gospel among mums and tots. I wanted to give up my teaching job to help her because her ministry felt so real and exciting. The word ‘pioneer’ hadn’t been invented.. but Alison showed me what it was, and I was inspired.
Twenty years later we’re still friends and we’re also colleagues whose lives have intertwined around the growth of pioneer mission in the Church of England. We live in different parts of the country but our work lives are on parallel tracks. We each do a similar job encouraging pioneering that most of our colleagues, family and friends don’t fully understand. We’re quite a rare species at this moment in the church’s history.
I’m amazed that all those years ago before pioneering was ‘a thing’ in the Church of England… before either of us were ordained… before the role of Fresh Expressions Officer or pioneer advocate were invented….God brought us together so that one day we could offer each other support, challenge, companionship and inspiration in lean times.
My brain shorts out trying to fathom how all the random factors that could have got in the way of this didn’t get in the way. #aweandwonder