All that glitters

"Do you realize you have glitter all over your face?" This question was posed to me by a woman at church whom I was praying for, telling her I would cook for her one day this week. Her husband is in some serious trouble in his cancer battle. They are treating him in the hospital with chemo 24/7 for nine days. She is drooping with exhaustion. We were in the church sanctuary after the service, during prayer time. I was puzzled by the fact that she was so focused on the gold glitter that seemed to be on me. I wondered who I had hugged that had transferred the glitter onto my face. Then another man, our church leader of healing prayer noticed the glitter. He asked me if my eyeshadow contained glitter. (no) He asked if my blush contained glitter. (no...I'm 52 for gosh sakes) Apparently other people started looking at it...all around my nose, my mouth, under my eyes. I was perplexed.....they were not. "The Glory of the Lord is on your face, " one man said. Now that was a stunner.....I had never heard of such a thing. But in this house of God where they believe in the absolute power of God, everyone around me knew of the glitter. It is always gold when it shows up. It always shows up when you are doing something pleasing to the Lord for other people. In one simple act of concentrating on someone else's struggles, in praying for a caregiver and offering to lighten her load, God had shown favor on me in a simple way which I would have never known about were it not for those around me who knew Him better.

It was a tangible reward for a simple act. I am always amazed by the people I meet who are in need of many things...comfort and courage, rest and reassurance, the diminishing of fear and the affirmation of life. Every single time that I reach out to one of them, every time I turn away from myself and touch another, it is such a blessing for me and I now know it is really pleasing to
God. So pleasing, in fact, that He may just sprinkle a little glory on you when you least expect.
It was a perfect lesson for me. Always, always help others if you can. Pray, touch, talk, listen.
Be the compassionate human that He created you to be. It is not all about you but rather all about what you can do to bring Him honor.

So this week, even though I had a treatment on Monday, I will be cooking for Hilda and praying for her husband. I will be praying for the two newly diagnosed women I met yesterday at the doctor's office, praying for my girls to be covered with compassion, love and patience. I will not be focused on side effects and medications, I will be focused on others....there are always other people who need the Lord worse that I do.

The footnote to all this: When I left church Sunday, I hurried to the car to look in the rearview mirror to find the glitter. Out in the daylight, away from the church...it was gone. I never got to see it and that's the point. Others saw it....others knew..and that is what matters.

"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col 1:27