The Arms of Jesus

Sometimes after church people stop me and tell me something that they experienced in worship. Thought I'd share this one...

As we were taking communion this past Sunday we were singing a song that called us to the tender arms of Jesus - something about "He would wrap our arms around us..." This woman who was telling me this after church had a rough week, feeling pretty beat down and wounded. She was telling me that as she was coming to take communion she noticed one of our young teenagers as she passed by and she innocently smiled at this teen. But as she smiled the teen came up and gave her a huge hug - out of the blue - for no reason at all. These two don't really even know each other. As the woman got back to her seat and began singing about the arms of Jesus she realized that she was just embraced by Jesus through this young teenage girl. That Jesus had seen her pain and embraced her.

As she was telling me this story she began to cry. God moved in that moment. It was beautiful.

Makes me think we should learn from this teenager and be a bit quicker to hug, a bit quicker to respond, a bit quicker to embrace.

Thanks TCC for being a community that embraces one another. A community that reaches across the boundaries of age and race and culture and economics and simply embraces. Beautiful.