Musings of a Comma Queen: Finding God in Ireland

This evening, just as we began the first concert of our Ireland tour, I saw God. Well, not exactly; I didn't have a heavenly revelation or anything, but I saw something that just made it seem like He was peeking into the church sanctuary where we were gathered. With churches on every corner, Celtic crosses in all the graveyards and tourist memorabilia, and the fact that we are on tour as a choir from a Christian College, one would think it would be easy to see God. However, it had been cold, raining, and somewhat dreary almost the entire day, and with the jet lag still hanging over all of us, none of us had much energy and wanted nothing more than to eat dinner and return to the hotel for dinner, not give a concert. Kind of hard to find God in that, no matter how many times we start our meetings in prayer.

This all changed, though, as we began singing Be Thou My Vision, the opening hymn. Throughout the song, I had been noticing that the sun was shining a little more brightly than before, but as we started the fourth and final verse, I glanced up to see the sun shining brightly through the window. Combined with the heartfelt worship going on around as the audience joined their voices enthusiastically with ours, it was as if God Himself had stepped into the room with us. While we attributed the "confidence boost" to the applause from the audience after a later song, I think it was partially due to seeing the sun peek out just as we were singing to the "High King of Heaven, His victory won" saying "May I reach heaven's joys, O bright Heaven's sun."

Sometimes, even though He is everywhere around us, it can be hard to see God. I think it's in those times especially that instead of finding Him in the big things, He reveals Himself to us in the little things. A kind word from an older man who reveals that he is dealing with cancer and won't have much longer to live, but was incredibly blessed by the music our choir shared. The cross in the middle of a graveyard that has withstood hundreds of years bashing at it, including vikings and their hammers as they tried to bring it down. Even the sun shining just a little brighter at exactly the moment you need it. God is always there, we just have to be open to seeing it.

---

Ireland Update:

We finally made it to Ireland, despite a three hour delay when they realized there was something wrong with our plane, so there is much jet lag. Mostly over the worst of it, however!

Monday, after arriving in Dublin, we had lunch at the Man O War pub and visited the Monasterboise and Mellifont Abbey.

Today, we had a bus tour of the city of Belfast and then had an opportunity to wander around at lunch time. Following that, we visited the Titanic Exhibition before our first concert.