An
Inkling
I
wish I had caught more of it on my phone camera. Because it was one of the most beautiful
things I’ve ever seen – though not in the usual sense of beauty.
Thanks
to tickets from Susan and Gene McKeown, Sarah and I were present for the
Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast last week.
We’ve gone before, and I am always inspired to hear from those who serve
the Lord in the tricky cross-currents of politics. So I expected to be inspired. I didn’t expect to be reduced to tears by
beauty.
The
first beautiful moment came when Gov. McDonnell prayed for his successor, Terry
McAuliffe. So much political speech is
flavored with scorn and posturing that it’s striking to hear someone crossing
party lines with prayer. And it was
particularly arresting to hear a Governor who is plainly at ease in the
language of prayer. He knew the One to whom
he spoke. And having served in the Governor’s
role himself, he knew the most important needs to lift up. So he did, in a most gracious and genuine way. It was truly beautiful.
And
there was more. Next came the testimony
from Thomas Haynesworth. In 2011 he was
freed from prison after serving 27 years for a rape he did not commit – as
proven by DNA evidence. The prosecutor
at the time had offered a one-year sentence if he would plea guilty, but since
he had not done it he would not. Then
through the long years he trusted that the Lord would deliver him. Why would the Lord wait 27 years? Only he knows. But the man who walked out of prison after
that long season of waiting is a wonder to behold as he testifies to the Lord’s
goodness. His gentle spirit and genuine
trust is simply beautiful.
That
was enough beauty already, but there was more.
Next they showed a video of the Dennehy family (12 children, 9 of whom
are adopted, and 5 of which have special needs). It was very moving in itself. Then George Dennehy, the oldest of the
adopted children, led us in worship as he sang and played guitar – with his
feet! He has no arms. (That’s what I caught in the video snippet
above.) He chose songs about the love of
God, and between songs testified in a winsome way about God’s goodness to him –
the guy with no arms!
Beauty
comes in many forms. Typically we think
of physical loveliness. None of these
men were lovely in that way (whatever their mamas may have thought!). But beautiful they were, in a much deeper and
profound way. The beauty of it reduced
me to a puddle of tears.
May
the Lord give us all an eye for his kind of beauty. And may he give us his kind of beauty in the
eyes of others.
Here’s
looking at you,
Keith
