OK, this is going to sound weird but, listen up: God spoke
to me yesterday. Wait, that’s not the weird part: He spoke to me using bird
poop. Now before you write me off as a crackpot, or chalk this up to an April
fool’s prank—let me explain.
About 5 weeks ago—it was the day before Lent began—we had
our first session of the Lenten video Bible study. The study was entitled “Everyday
Jesus”. The speaker, Pastor Pete Briscoe was talking about something odd called
“kitchen window” communication. He shared a modern-day parable about a man who
lived in a house and never spoke to anybody except through his kitchen window. The
lesson being, that oftentimes we place limitations on how we experience the
world, and especially how we experience God.
Each of us have our favorite or acceptable ways in which we
allow God to speak to us. Some of the common “kitchen window” experiences of
God include: music, nature, prayer, Scripture, studying theology, meditation or
maybe a mystical experience of some kind. We all have our preferred way of
experiencing Jesus. This personal preference is our “kitchen window”.
Still with me? Ok, good—I’m going to get back to the bird
poop, I promise!
Briscoe explained how Jesus very simply and humbly spent
time with his disciples. They walked everywhere they went. This is a very
humble mode of transportation. As they travelled, Jesus pointed out very
simple, everyday objects to illustrate a spiritual lesson. He told his
disciples to look at the birds, the flowers, a fig tree, a mustard seed, a
farmer, a coin—it was in the ordinary things of life that God can be seen. The
point Jesus was making is that God can be seen just about everywhere if
we are looking for Him. However, we limit ourselves to a “kitchen window”
experience of God rather than opening ourselves up to the possibility of God
showing up everyday in unexpected ways.
So at the end of the video session, Pastor Pete told a story
about how he went on a walk and saw a little patch of grass clippings on the
ground and it was perfectly formed in the shape of a heart. He took a picture
of it and showed it to everyone. Then he invited us to look for our own hearts.
Yes, things in the shape of hearts. By doing so, we would be opening up a new
door or window of our life to experiencing God. Finding hearts was a way of
hearing God say, “I love you” through common, everyday things. His point was
that Jesus is bigger and broader than we realize and he will break into our
lives in unexpected ways if we are honestly seeking to find him.
Well, I had kind of forgotten about this searching-for-hearts
thing until earlier this week when one of my parishoners, who attended the video
session, sent me a picture of an egg she had fried. The yolk broke onto the
skillet in the perfect shape of a heart!
With this reminder, I went out on a walk
yesterday. I took a different route than normal (because a woman from the church had stopped in the office earlier in the day and suggested I take my daily walk through the town cemetery). Why someone would tell their pastor to take a walk in the graveyard was a bit strange. (Is that a hint, or something?). No matter, I decided to take her up on it and headed toward the old tombstone gardens. On my way, right outside the local pizza joint, I noticed a small
blemish on the sidewalk. It was the remnants of a bird dropping, exquisitely
formed in the shape of a heart. Don’t believe me? See for yourself…
Unmistakable! That is a heart sent by God just for me to
see. It’s been raining since yesterday so you won’t find this mark on the
sidewalk today. There was a small window of time for this particular message to
be seen. And I just happened to walk by, on a unconventional route, to see this
bizarre love letter from Jesus.
Bizarre indeed! The point of this message for you today is
not to limit the ways in which the Lord can speak to you. He is here and there—in
the ordinary (even scatological) things of life!
During this Lenten season, and this season of physical
distancing, I invite you to be on the lookout for hearts, crosses, fish, doves—anything
that reminds you of God’s eternal and everyday presence. He is there in the
midst of the loneliness and suffering of a worldwide pandemic. He has told us: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”
(Matthew 28:20). The word “behold” means to “open your eyes” or to “look”! If
you find a sign of God’s love in your everyday comings-and-goings, be sure to
take a picture and send it to me. It might be fun to see often and in how many
different ways the Lord reveals Himself to us!
J. T. Bean
Lead Pastor
Trinity United Methodist Church
Phone: (419)
826-2492
P. S. - If you would like to watch Pastor Pete Briscoe’s sermon
I was speaking of, it’s on YouTube at this link: Everyday Jesus | Part 1: Everyday
Jesus
