Hidden Blessings

As I've been preparing and reflecting before my ordination Saturday, I've been thinking a lot about hidden blessings. It's been 8 years since I regularly attended my home church, Woodmont Christian Church in Nashville. And yet as I get ready to be ordained there on Saturday, I am discovering so many blessings hidden in my past, like Easter eggs that God placed in my memories, knowing all along that I wouldn't discover them for years.

I think back on the music I sang in the youth choir there. Songs I thought were boring at the time, now when I hear them are overflowing with meaning, enough to make me tear up.

I think back on all the "uncool" adults who came to youth group. I realized that lessons I now take for granted -- the importance of prayer, our need to serve others, a willingness to engage the world around us -- I first learned from them. Now those faithful souls seems so cool to me.

I think back to the stained glass window in the church. It has a beautiful cross that was the tallest thing I could think of for many years of my life. I can remember doodling at school and drawing that cross. How can you estimate the value of such hidden blessings?

Let's all look back and find those hidden blessings. We shouldn't have to wait for a special occasion to thank those who planted them.

Let's also remember that we have the opportunity to plant seeds just like the seeds planted in us. Our hidden blessings were someone else's hidden ministries. We are all ministering at all times. Our words and our actions become Easter eggs placed in someone's memories.

As I head to Nashville, know that I am taking you with me. As I have hands laid on me, ordaining me for God's ministry, know that I will feel your touch in that moment as well.