Ethereal Effervescence

Ethereal: 1) light, airy or tenuous: "an ethereal world created by poetic imagination." 2) extremely delicate or refined: "ethereal beauty" 3) heavenly or celestial: "gone to his ethereal home" 4) of or pertaining to the upper regions of space. 5) Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; intangible. 6) Highly refined, delicate. 7) a - of the celestial spheres, heavenly, b - Not of this world, spiritual
Effervescence: of several definitions, I choose this for today "to show high spirits or animation", the synonyms show the feeling I don't know how to describe, click here to see.

Yesterday I was running an errand for church early in the morning and on one of the little side roads that I chose in order to get to the Giant Super Mart that shall be unnamed, I experienced one of those scenes like from a movie, it was very surreal. There was a wonderful, whirling dervish of tinkling leaves, at once gentle and wild. It moved in front of me as I drove for a good pace, and when I came back through on the way back to the church, it met me again, always staying just ahead of me, as if in elvish delight.

I can't explain the thrill, the other worldness of that scene, that experience. I heard a term not long ago that comes close to it, it's called a "God Wink". Those little things, that are often sprinkled throughout your week, if only your heart is turned towards Him, and you look with expectancy. Not like seeing markings in cows, or in your French Toast. But those things that are akin to the wink between two people in a large group of people, say at a cook-out or meeting, the wink that conveys a shared connection in that moment, based on that thread of the conversation, that maybe only the two of you get, and you will never speak of it. My Daddy is famous for these, usually accompanied by a stroking of his mustache...

I was thinking of two things in the rush that hit me upon seeing and hearing the tinkle and whirl of the leaves. 1) That people miss these God Winks all the time. What a shame. And 2) That it reminded me of yet another verse which I love to ponder and never fully comprehend. John 3:6-8 'What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh [of the physical is physical]; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not (do not be surprised, astonished) at my telling you, You must be born anew (from above). The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

At the time, I thought of the verse for the obvious reason. But, once again, as I obediently heeded the nudge to try to tackle this post, I sensed something larger at play, another teaching moment as a gift from above...He's been reminding me that we are seated in Heavenly places and I am brewing some good stuff on that...and somehow I sense that this verse and that experience are woven together, with the concept of being seated in heavenly places. As in, to be born again, and seated in heavenly places, means there is and should be a very intangible quality, even buoyancy to us. You can't keep us down, the enemy can't grab hold of us, we bring an energy a zest that is contagious, that deposits into the people around us. We bring LIFE with us wherever we go.

Something about us is a bit like that wonderful experience where God met me in the whirl and twirl, tinkle and swirl of those delightful leaves on Sunday!

Much love, Maria!