Cold air, new feeling

The wind has gotten colder and I am sitting at my house after a long day, I come home to change into my pajamas and I heat up a cup of hot chocolate in my favorite mug. As the cup is warm when I pull it out of the microwave, I realize that this to me is home. This cup represents comfort, represents peace and when I wrap both hands around it I slowly sip the contents of the mug, life slows down. I cover up in a blanket and curl up on the couch with my head tilted toward the cup, and my hands in a prayer like position up near my face, where I can feel the warmth of the air above the cup rise up and meet my chin. It is at this point I realize that all the things that stress me out are simplistic at their core and at the center of life, they are not a big deal.

God is revealed in this simple cup. God is found when I pay attention to him and take time to wrap my arms around his word and hear his voice. He is in the times I place my hands up near my face and bow my head in prayer and listen to what he is trying to tell me. God is found when I sip what he has in store for me taking in all that he is, with all of my senses aroused just like the cup of hot chocolate does. How did this single cup of hot chocolate become of such significance to me? When we are children we are each taught to not run with hot things.  We carry them with care. We watch intently as the steam rises from the contents and we see how this impacts the air that is above the mug, and we wonder how this works, just as how we see our breath when it is cold outside. We even are found setting the contents and the mug carefully on the table and just starring at it because it is something to be feared, something to be in awe of and something, once cooled, can be nourishment to our bodies.

God is like this, when we are the closest to him, we are in awe of how he changes the world around us, just like the air above the cup. When we hold his word with the care that we do the cup, we realize that there is something more important in what we are holding than usual. When we blow on the mug, it is as if this is our prayer to God as we offer what little we have, our mere breath, to make a difference on the contents of the cup. We have to make the contents less hot, or less potent because God gives us things that can move mountains. God is the nourishment that we find in our souls, and when we stare at him, and gaze upon his beauty we find that we too are beloved, broken and yet redeemed.

I love this feeling, when the heat of the cup, just holding it, warms your body from the inside out. It is as if there is a surge of energy that begins within the depths of your being and you are being changed from the inside. God does this when he changes our life after redemption is found in the grace of his son.

If only I could apply this cup mentality to everything that is around me. I wish I could consistently come to come with this reverent approach, with the sense that knowing God is enough, just like knowing the contents of the cup is hot, is enough to keep me from taking a huge sip and burning my tongue on the contents. Even in the little things God is found here, often for me, God is more found in these more than anything else.