Is it really possible to share the gleam three weeks in a row? You betcha!! 😊

The original reference was to the Scriptural description of the “men” at Yeshua’s tomb as “gleaming”. Last week I shared some personal gleaming, and some of you shared yours too with me. Perhaps we’re onto something needing our attention, as the ability to feel His Presence inexplicably often carries us through the other times in our lives when He may feel distant.

Originally the word led us to thoughts of angels for an extraordinary brightness or gleaming surely is associated with such experiences. Yet when we allow ourselves to recognize the reality of angels and HaShem’s presence in our lives, our excitement at that reality can cause us to gleam figuratively. When bathed in the reality of His existence in our lives, the intimacy of His Son Yeshua actually being with us in every moment, well, maybe even the word “gleam” can’t fully describe such an overwhelming feeling of awe.

As I was pondering this thought a rather torrential rainstorm was happening. Sid and I recently bought a new-to-us Winnebago and had noticed that where the antenna attaches to the roof there had been a slight leak. Sid had been planning to caulk the area but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So as we listened to the drumming of the rain, literally buckets, I was picturing the worst but there really was nothing that could be done at that point as the rain continued through the night. . .

The next morning, Sid with great apprehension went out to check on the RV and assess the damage. Miraculously, rather inexplicably really, no water had leaked into the vehicle at all! Like none. And we knew there was a leak there since we had seen it when way less rain had occurred. As Sid came back in to report that the ceiling was dry I said, “Oh my gosh!! That is a miracle!”

At that moment I looked down at my phone. I had been playing Words with Friends and the word I saw was . . .

“Gleaming”!!!

I can’t make this up. I hadn’t used that word nor had the person with whom I was playing! There probably is some “rational” explanation given the many screens that can come up on an electronic game. Yet that is not the point. To me, at that moment, with perfect synchronicity, in a way that I could understand since I was in the “gleaming” mode of seeing His Love of us, HaShem was letting me know He was here in that moment somehow protecting us from great damage to our RV. (That IS a miracle!) He meets us where we are, in the ways we can relate, so that we can feel His Presence, which fortifies our faith.

Later that same day during the meeting of our Bible study group, one of our members who is Jewish raised an excellent question: “Isn’t it true that the New Testament was written hundreds of years after the events occurred, and so, why should I believe it as true?”. First, that’s not true and Rabbi Nathan has a great chart he used in our Maturing in Messiah class on this very point which I was able to share with the group.

Yet even better, that same afternoon on my jog (my time with God), as I was listening to that day’s Daily Dvar, John 5:46-47 was part of that day’s reading. To paraphrase, when being doubted by a Pharisee, Yeshua states that if the Pharisee believed Moses he would believe Yeshua “for he wrote about me”, and further, if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how will you believe what I say?” For that to be the passage on the very day my Jewish friend had questioned the basis for believing in Yeshua, well, such perfect timing of an answer was gleaming to me, and later to her, too, when I shared it.

For my Jewish friend the chart and tie-in to Moses was powerful! For me, it was amazing that that would be the section, of all the possible passages that could have been our daily reading, that this would be the one that so spoke to the question at hand. How He wants each of us to come to Him. How He makes these gleaming moments in our lives!

I am convinced that the more we seek Him, the more we don’t fight the thought as irrational, but rather, as holy, that He will reveal more and more of His gleaming moments to every single seeker. These moments are not just when synchronistic and obvious, but also, when we feel there is nothing to gleam about, when our lives have misery and pain. Perhaps in those times we feel we need Him the most, and so, will receive His light even more powerfully. Yet He awaits us always, in the good times and in the bad. Sometimes it just takes great patience with ourselves to be able to see what is right in front of us.

I hope this week brings you great moments of His gleam.

Shabbat shalom.

Diane