To be Perfectly Human
on the sacredness of ordinary moments
I don’t want to take the miracle of being here for granted.
The air on my skin, in the dark just before dawn, before night departs and the sun’s rays shine deep pink amid ink blue, breathes, everything is sacred.
This moment is sacred.
The sky is calm, gently ushering in newness, like a mother in morning light bending to kiss my cheek. I want to be kissed, reassured of love’s presence, of goodness and beauty here in all moments.
Yes.
As I walk into the garage, turning the key in the door, I look down the street, the path my three children once took to school. In this fresh January darkness, I’m not melancholic or wistful about what was, or worried about what will be.
I am here. A miracle in a moment of miracles. A daughter reveling in beauty, in being perfectly human — weak and complicated and strong. In being fully present to what is.
Inside the garage — part workshop, part storage, part gym — I move, warming up my muscles in the chilled air. The silence is heavy and beautiful.
I awake in the stillness, but my thoughts try to scatter: I need to get the last of the Christmas decorations up in the attic. I wonder how M. is feeling today? Please heal her. What will I cook for dinner? Jesus, come. Be with me. Be with me here.
Every thought I let tumble out, buoyant, unorganized, and sometimes confused—an extrication of meaning from a too-crowded circus clown car. I speak the thoughts into the air, and He holds them, helping me look out and beyond myself, even while my heart looks in, in, in.
Where are you, Jennifer? How is your heart?
The question is from — and not from — me, and I welcome it.
I consecrate to you my mind, my every thought.
I give you my words, my ideas.
I give you my actions and intentions.
I give you my work and my relationships.
I give you my heart.
After my workout, I alternate between stillness and movement: blue journal paper, winter garden dirt, the click of computer keys, the gravel of neighborhood paths. My mind and body converse with God in indoor spaces and out in open air. Both seeking deeper unity.
Envelope me. Be with me.
In the garden, I sit under the orange tree, looking beneath leafy branches heavy with fruit to the wintered plants — quiet and unflowered. I watch the bee hives, subdued, while warblers and juncos compete in a call-and-response choir. The air is cool. The light is gentle. Everything waits.
I hear you. I am in the singing.
Later, as I sit here typing, I trust the words that come. I trust the presence that holds me.
Remember, remember, remember — there is always hope in failure; there is always effort in love.
And so I think and read and write. I enjoy laughter and walks with friends. I soak up stories of family and poetry of small things. I write to catalogue the beauty, following God’s wink and gesture and song.
I am learning to see with new eyes. My fingers on these keys, the air on my skin, the fresh January darkness — all of it miracle. All of it holy. All of it him.
I am with you. You are with me.
I am practicing looking with the eyes of home. I am home and not home. I belong and don’t belong.
This is what it means to be perfectly human: to be present to the sacred in every breath, every moment. To accept the invitation to be here, fully alive, awake to wonder.
Just like you do.
Just like you.
Sara Hagerty wrote “For When You Did Your Best …”
Timothy Willard wrote “How We Get Beauty Wrong.”
John Eldredge wrote “Give Everyone and Everything to God.”
Sample ➼ Knowing God by J. I. Packer
Sample ➼ The Familiar Stranger by Tyler Staton
Encounter ➼ “Everything for Everything”
Audio Experience ➼ “Get a Taste of Heaven”
Rapt’s Feelings Wheel ➼ Discover your Inner Life
We updated Rapt’s ‘Best of’ lists this week. Lots of new stuff!
Tony Wood is a multiple Dove Award-winning songwriter and lyricist of over 30 No. 1 hit songs for artists like Michael W. Smith, Dolly Parton, and more.
Kathleen Cooke is a producer, actress, global speaker and writer. She is the cofounder of the award-winning production company Cooke Media Group.
Dominique Young is the founder of Faith Family Worldwide, a community of over 6,000 Christian women and app supporting more than 1,700 believers.
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“The present moment is the ambassador of God ... All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals his divine action.”
—Jean-Pierre de Caussade
It is easier to sense God in the sunrise, but de Caussade challenges us to believe that God is equally present in the “scattered thoughts” and in the moments when our lives feel a bit like crowded circus clown cars. Doing that demands a radical acceptance of everything as a vehicle for his presence.
Today, will you look for him everywhere?
With so much hope,
Editor-at-Large, Rapt Interviews
Creator of Loop for Women
Co-executive Director, Gather Ministries
So beautiful. In my healing and process I am learning more and more what it's like to be safe,with God, within myself and with others and in the safety there is more attunement to presence, God with me, and more capacity to see goodness around me. Your words are wonderful and I anticipate and long for being more at rest and ease