Sacred Ground

I was walking my children home on the last day of school, feeling more than the usual, confusing mix of gratitude and grief that comes at the end of each school year. We were headed home down River Rd when I was filled with an overwhelming sense of God’s presence. Time froze and I saw my oldest in this exact spot (pictured above) as 9 years old, 4 years old, 2 years old, all at once. That same tuft of curly blond hair. The same gait. The same sidewalks we’ve walked almost daily for ten years. There must be hundreds of holy spots along these sidewalks, unseen monuments to the sacred moments between parents and children, friends and strangers, neighbors and guests.

It got me thinking about the nature of sacred space and how, in Jesus’s time as well as ours, we often identify sacred space only within a church or other house of worship. When, really, it’s public spaces—perhaps even more than private ones—that hold that sacred quality. In this Sunday’s Gospel, which opens on a conversation between Jesus and an expert in the law, Jesus tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan as a way of overturning expectations, by pointing to holiness and righteousness from a race of people his friend least expects.

This is your invitation to notice what is holy wherever you find yourself this week, perhaps especially from the places or people you least expect. For those who are listening, God makes His presence abundantly, and beautifully, clear.

Ginny Chilton, Supervisor of Children's & Youth Ministries and Minister of Music