Firsts

This week, I started my at my first parish position.

First time in *that* sanctuary.  First time someone called me, awkwardly, "Um, Reverend?..." First time meeting an altar guild of thirty women who know the names of sacred objects and know how to clean them.  First Vestry meeting.  First use of the "split" chalice.  First time wearing a collar in the grocery story.  First time reading this specific Gospel for a congregation, "In my Father's house there are many dwellings..." which is, of course, one of the selected texts for a funeral.

All these firsts, and it got me thinking.

How is God showing up in these firsts?  In some way, I believe that God overflows in those "first" moments.  With awe, with confidence, with delicacy, with color, with surprise.  *That's* a living God, alive!  God - loving me through it all, despite my new-ness.

I hope it always feels "first."

“So I started in, talking. Before I’d spoken half a dozen sentences, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as he did on us the first time. I remembered Jesus’ words: ‘John baptized with water; you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ So I ask you: If God gave the same exact gift to them as to us when we believed in the Master Jesus Christ, how could I object to God?” - Acts 11:15-17 (The Message)