God in the lavatory
He drew me out of the place where I expected to find him, to where I would least expect it.
Motherhood means you land up in all sorts of unusual places.
On Sunday I turned to the cool and quiet of the restrooms at our church when my over-tired 10-month-old boy just would not be consoled.
Sitting on a closed toilet lid with Ruben Bruce in my arms and the dappled sunlight streaming in from the skylight window, I was suddenly quite taken by God’s presence.
It struck me that God had drawn me out of the place where I expected to find him, to where one would least expect it.
God was with me in the mundane, in the ordinary and even in the unpleasant.
It filled me with such peace to be reminded that God does not live in a church, he is everywhere and he wants to talk to little, ordinary me.
There are no hoops I have to jump through or ladder I have to climb before I am to be given that incredible privilege.
That night as I was nursing Ruben to sleep the revelation deepened.
I often feel like a second-rate Christian when I compare my own ‘achievements’ – the daily wiping of bottoms and snotty noses – with the great works of famous evangelists like Heidi Baker and Billy Graham.
Surely I should be doing more, I think. But no, in that moment he impressed deeply on me that my mission right now is Ruben and his big brother Daniël and the simple act of feeding my baby was an act of worship.
The rocking late at night until my back aches, the bedtimes battles and mealtime negotiations.
All these mundane and ordinary, and yet somehow sacred.
***
“The whole business of adults going to church filled Anna with suspicion. The idea of collective worship went against her sense of private conversations with Mister God. As for going to church to meet Mister God, that was preposterous. After all, if Mister God wasn’t everywhere, he wasn’t anywhere. For her, churchgoing and ‘Mister God’ talks had no necessary connection.” – Fynn, ‘Mister God, This is Anna’.
***
On the back of all the hysteria about the possibility of major honey producers adding sugar to the mix to make more bucks, I did something I’ve been meaning to do for ages.
I visited Azikho all natural and organic shop in Gregory Park.
The store stocks all sorts of interesting environmentally friendly products and is run by the lovely Jody Walters who was one of our longest standing sales reps (25 years to be precise) here at the Courier before she retired last year.
Azikho offers raw honey harvested by local beekeeper Trevor Thompson.
You can buy a jar or take your own jar for #zeroimpact.
I got myself some and it’s delicious!
