Reflection

This has been one heck of a week.

Most days I've felt as though I were treading water. Not making any progress. Just wearing myself out in one spot. This groove I've hollowed out for myself is no longer comfortable... too deep, too wide, and I need to get out. To scream and hear my own voice echo, to run and see the world fly by, to grow wings and rise higher and higher - gain perspective and vision.

Tonight was no different.

Until I went out with my family. With my little sister who is learning how to smile and my third sister who is dealing with her fifteenth year with much more grace than I did.

Over chips and salsa and music, things changed. As they do every time we get together. A new layer of our family is pulled back, a new dimension to our relationships is built. Between life lessons and compliments in Spanish... I left the dinner table better than I had come to it.

But unlike normal, the night was not over.

The Festival Latina is in town this weekend.

Streets have been blocked off.

Music is blaring.

The courthouse property smells like beer and cigars.

I can only understand a few of the words spoken around me.

And unlike normal, I slipped into a comfortable state of being.

As if I was lulled by the quick words of the people around me, the words I didn't understand. Mesmerized by what I learned from facial expressions and hand gestures. Entranced by the fireworks display that almost trumped the Fourth of July.

At one point during the fireworks display, we looked over to one of Lexington's tall buildings.

The windows were dark.

What was inside did not matter.

The dark panes of glass suddenly came to life, reflecting the fireworks exploding in the sky.

Over and over again the windows would fall dark and then illuminate again with purples and reds and then shudder when the fireworks popped and boomed.

And I thought to myself how the church should be like those windows.

How it is not what we are that is awesome. Or great.

We are only dark windows.

Made to reflect His light.

Made to shudder in His presence.

To draw people's attention to the awesome display of glory and light that He is...

That is our purpose.

To be a reflection of what is good and awesome about our Father.