Friday Five: Revelation

Sally at RevGalBlogPals has this to challenge us this week:

With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently.

So with no further waffle I offer you this week's Friday 5:

How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:

1. Book: I haven't been doing a lot of spiritual reading lately, mostly mysteries and some non-fiction dealing with economics (in a fairly superficial way). But one mystery I read was a sort of revelation: Signs in the Blood by Vicki Lane. You can read my full review on www.goodreads.com or DorothyL but what I didn't mention was this. In the book, the protagonist, a lapsed Episcopalian who hasn't been to church except for weddings and funerals for years, goes with one of her mountain neighbors to a Holiness "signs following" church -- yes, snake-handlers. She doesn't end up joining them, but she does have a revelation that there really is "church" going on here -- not just in the ecstasy but in the prayers and sense of community she observes. It was a good message for one who's sometimes tempted to think that her own way of worship is the best or only way.

2.Film: This is hard too. Lately I've mostly been watching Foyle's War and Due South (TV shows) and while they have many admirable characters, it seems a stretch to call them God-revealers. However, a few weeks ago Onkel Hankie Pants and I watched Elmer Gantry. Did I already blog about this? Anyway, the ambiguity in the character of Elmer Gantry was a big surprise to me, and the character's actions in the last part of the film left me wondering exactly where he was going next. Although the general wisdom seems to be that he went off to perpetrate more religious scams on a gullible public, and this may indeed have been Sinclair Lewis's idea, I wonder. The possibility for redemption is there, and that is a sign of God's work.

3. Song: Last year when I was taking a Bible study on Revelation, I went through my music and made a Revelation Mix playlist of songs referencing that book of the Bible. There are 100 items on it and I don't know for sure that I got them all. (Of course, there are several renditions of I'll Fly Away included.) It's hard to pick a favorite, but in honor of Brunswick's recent CUBA WEEK (our sister city is Trinidad, Cuba) I'll post this video of one of my favorites, My Lord, What a Morning.


4. Another person: My daughter, Sisterknits, reveals God to me over and over in her many phone calls. She has many thoughtful insights about her studies in film and child development and life in general. And, she gave me and her sister a Virtual Easter Basket -- a contribution to help train and equip midwives in Third World countries.

5. Creation: I saw my first robin this morning! (This year, that is.) The return of spring, indeed of every season, reminds me of God's promise to Noah and lifts my heart.

Bonus answer: your choice- share something encouraging/ amazing/ humbling that has happened to you recently! I've been posting reviews of mystery books to DorothyL and goodreads for a while now, and it happens fairly often that the authors of the books will contact me and thank me for a good review, which is humbling - A Published Arthur! Thanking me! -- but recently I've had a couple of other folks also email me that they liked my reviews and that is encouraging.