I sit at Panera, laptop open in front of me, staring out the window at snow drifting down.

I come from a morning full of harsh words and impatience, full of angry attitudes and frustrated responses.

I watch the fat flakes piling up and am struck by the beauty of the view, struck by the sacredness of a dirty world turning white.

I sift through my memories of this morning and wonder why I am unable to also see those parts of life as sacred.

It is easy to see the sacredness of snow. It is difficult to see the sacredness in a child’s anger.

When life is beautiful, when I gaze at spring flowers or at a little girl reading to her sister, I have no trouble in seeing God.

It is when my children fuss and yell, when they shove each other and bang angry fists on the piano and Mommy hollers back in return, that God seems to vanish.

Yet if I truly believe that there is no separation between sacred and secular, if I believe that the fullness of life is sacred, if I believe that there is no difference between kneeling before God in prayer and kneeling in service before a dirty toilet…

Then there is sacredness even in my child who is storming away from me in anger and frustration.

There is sacredness in a fussy toddler, in a stubborn preschooler, in a huffy elementary school child.

It is easier to react with impatience than to see God in these things. It is easier to speak harsh words in response than to pause long enough to search for the sacredness and speak words of Love in answer.

I am trying to figure out how to hold on to the truth that there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular, between the body and the soul. I am trying to figure out how to hold on to the truth that God made this world and made this life and uses every piece of both to bring me to Him.

I am trying to figure out how to “become more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”
(Barbara Brown Taylor in An Altar in the World)

It is this, this living of real life in the real world while focusing myself on God, that will change me, change my life, change the way I live my life.

Which, in turn, will bring me closer to God.

And that is indeed truly sacred.