Turning Points

Turning points.  Aha moments.  We've all had them.  They are times of revelation, of transformation.  Something or someone touched our lives and we were never the same again.  We look back and say, "From then on...."

• My dad was diagnosed with cancer for the first time when I was in second grade.  I visited him in the hospital and went to radiation appointments with him.  From then on... I treasured every moment and understood the difference between infinite and finite.
• I went to Bible camp in 6th grade and Jesus came alive for me.  From then on...God was not distant and other.  God didn't have a German accent and slicked back hair like my childhood pastor.  God looked like the person next to me and felt like the breeze on my face.  God was vibrant like the perfect white clouds against the deep blue sky.  
• I dated an Atheist in High School.  From then on.....I understood that we don't all believe the same things or express our beliefs in the same way.  I was shattered by this realization.  Now I know that God is bigger than my unbelief and more complete than my belief.
• The day before my dad died, my sister told me that she is gay.  I told her, "I love you no matter what" - and then I hung up the phone and cried my eyes out.  From then on....I realized I am called to love, not judge.
• My dad died when I was about ready to graduate from college.  From then on.....I knew the definition of grief.  I knew that the people who hold you through the deep night of the soul are actually stand-ins for Jesus.
• I met my husband through a whirlwind of moving and discerning God's call in strange and twisted life circumstances.  From then on....I understood that God weaves two lives together and creates something new and beautiful and sacred when the two become one.
• I gave birth to my first baby girl.  From then on.....I understood God's relentless, protective, nurturing love in a completely new way.
• I gave birth to my second baby girl.  From then on.....just when I thought I could never love another baby as much as I loved my first, God taught me that love x love = infinity.

Those are just a few of my From then on moments in life.  And in each and every one of them, I can see God transforming me to live in a brand new way.

I think the ultimate Turning Point, Aha Moment, whatever you want to call it - was the turning point from the cross to the tomb to the resurrection.  

From then on.....Death would never have the final answer.

From then on.....Love would always win.

From then on.....All of creation could breathe again.

From then on.....

                             You fill in the blank

                             God is in every turning point - 

                                  and every turning point, no matter how                

                                  beautiful or painful, is a window into God's love.