4 UUs (as in... unbeatable underpinning)

This Monday winter seemed to be bent on laying its claim on the dark weeks of January by unleashing its charges of snow, but it lost its spirit on the very next day after the attack – with the streets all covered with muddy slush and the humid blows of wind, “nice” is the last thing one could say about the atmosphere outside. And so, we were few to meet at Sweet Surrender for our weekly meeting with God and each other. Karoline initiated the evening by suggesting a game of names. As we were beating time with our hands, one person was saying their name and somebody else’s name to the rhythm. When you heard you name, it was your turn to call out one of the players… but the real difficulty wasn’t to know each other’s names (this we did), but to fill in the limited time between one clap and another. This challenge can really wake up your brain after a day of work at the uni.

After the warm-up, Andrew suggested that everybody exchange a couple of words in private with God. With silent music playing in the background, it was one of these extraordinary moments when one tunes out all the other voices in their head just to stay focused on the one of the Creator. What is he for us? Everything we’ve ever needed. The Provider. The Father. The One that never gives up on us. The Merciful. The Deliverer. The Reason for which we live.

Unfortunately, it turned out that our speaker wouldn’t be able to make it. But we still had a blessed time listening to Esther sharing her reflection on God’s amazing grace. To illustrate it, she cited a passage from Psalm 78 verses 38 to 39, where it says that even though “the people’s heart was not steadfast toward God (…) he restrained his anger often and (…) he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again”. We came to a conclusion that grace is simply something that we, humans, are by nature not capable to understand. There’s always this feeling that we should earn forgiveness, whereas the reality is less complicated – it’s there for free, and we’ve only got to ask to obtain it.

I don’t know what about others, but as for me, when I went out to face the cold winter, I felt charged with positive energy burning inside me, as if I had drunk the best mulled wine ever!