I forget that Christianity is more than the tallest church steeple and the prettiest Sunday clothes. I get caught up in the sweetness of notes sung by the choir and the whiteness of the paint along the foyer walls.

Is the wine good? Is the bread soft enough to break? Have the organ tuned. Align the pews.

I am brought back to earth by the sound of a blue jay in the magnolia tree. It is the perfect hymn. The dew in the grass moistens my heels. The wind is rough against my face and it stirs the flower beds.

I am reminded of all this; where the heart of God lies.

Not only in the caverns of well-vacuumed sanctuaries that smell like your grandmother’s living room or in gaudy chapels where Michelangelo once stood. He is here among us.

In my home where my mom hums as she cooks dinner. Wafting through the aisles on the subway. Deep in the ICU of Memorial Hermann. He is close by during the monotonous routines we keep day by day. His sorrow rests on the hearth of my fireplace after I fight with my sister. He listens to my broken song echoing through the tile of the shower. He’s awake in the early lull of dawn before most of the population has thrown off their sheets and flipped their pancakes.

At 3 a.m. when I am writhing with sadness and pain, tears puddling on my pillow, He is gentle with my soul. Arms cradling my body, He gives me the kind of peace that nations crave and mothers can conjure with the recipe of hot tea and the creak of a rocking chair.

Every second He is with us burning with love for our souls.

When my scalp is not clean and my church dress is wrinkled, I have a Father who jumps up at my entrance, because He sees beyond the scalp and the dress and the soft bread and the taste of the wine during the Lord’s supper. His eyes see the souls behind the skin and the bones.

He is in us when we ask Him to be. He is there at our beckoning call.

Zephaniah 3:17

"The Lord your God is in our midst, a mighty One who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing."

First published on http://justalittleliving.blogspot.com.