This column represents the individual thoughts and opinions of a group of Taylor friends who almost never completely agree about anything but are gratified by the opportunity to stimulate deliberately diverse discussions in our beloved community. Today’s column represents the thoughts and opinions of Judith Pyeatt Grissom NOT the Taylor Press. Grissom holds degrees in Christianity and Psychology.
A study of the life of the disciples finds their group traveling from town to town - training in casting out demons, healing, and other principles that Jesus taught them.
Even as intimately connected to Jesus as the disciples were, it seems they were also continually “completely astonished.”
What was the source of this recurring “astonishment”?
A more thorough meaning of “astonished” conveys “a confusion which signals a divine disclosure that is part of revelation, where one is jolted out of ordinary experience into a different reality.” It conveys a growing recognition of the depth of God. Even Jesus was “astonished”, in this way, as he prayed at Gethsemane in great distress, fear, and confusion, as revelation of the full reality of the cup of suffering becomes known to him. Jesus prayed, wept, and, Luke says (22:44) even sweating blood, that this cup might be taken away, before finally accepting the full truth of his mission from the Father, the source.
Spiritual “astonishment” is a continual process that happens in Christian growth, when some mystical encounter outside our present world throws us into a revelation. Perhaps this first experience might be the discovery of one’s own sinful nature, and the need for healing that the source offers. But how do we, in a world of utter noise and distraction, tap into the mystical? How do we tap into revelation in our lives?
The moments are few when we give time for revelation, for meditation, for that spiritual connection which is here. Perhaps you have experienced that connection, that truth of the matter, in your own lives.
I have been “astonished” by observation and participation in impending death of loved ones, when, as Gethsemane, you wait and participate in the death of another, astonished as you are aware of changes in the reality around you, a veil which you cannot enter, yet you can physically feel.
It is a meeting of spiritual company of another realm - a realm that the dying recognize. It is the joy and peace in the presence of the familiar which the dying can see, and will join on their journey.
Or, perhaps it might be as you sit alone by a river, where first you find stillness, then slowly each sound becomes amplified, musical, clean, clear, and you are astonished in the revelation of the Kingdom of God and the celestial orchestra that is praise of God.
God, the source of the world and every creature in it, is the never-ending story of our lives. The truth can be hidden behind our veils of distraction, which keep us from finding what actually lies before us and is with us all the time. It is the still, small voice within. We can’t hear the voice, touch it, experience it on TV. The source does not hide from us, we simply take so few steps in our lives to open our inner veil to the Holy of Holies.
