Compared to a typical Saturday morning, today was a busy one.

Owen has a full day of school today.  Twice a year or so, the school has a classroom visitation — all the parents (of 31 children!) go at 9 am  and stand on the outside edge of the class to watch the teacher and children interact for an hour.  After we go home, his class continues like a weekday and he will return around 3 pm.  On Monday, the school will be closed since they went on saturday.

We got Owen off at 7:4..got up the other 2 girls to get them ready; made Owen’s obento lunch; got out the slippers and girls indoor shoes for school, and then I went to Starbucks (yes!) to pick up some of their big cookies for Eric’s men’s english class that was beginning today at 10:30 — immediately after the school visit.  

Coming home, a song was playing  — and it was one of those strange moments where I forgot that I was driving (scary for others on the road)… and I heard a song as if for the very first time.  Maybe it was the first time that I really HEARD the words:

(Everything Glorious by the David Crowder Band)

The day is brighter here with You
The night is lighter than its hue
Would lead me to believe
Which leads me to believe

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?

My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there’s light enough to see that

(chorus)
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours

From glory to glory
You are glorious You are glorious
From glory to glory
You are glorious. You are glorious
Which leads me to believe
why I can believe that

Here is the song on YouTube:

This truth – that Jesus makes all things glorious – stunned me.  I am His;  He makes all things glorious; What does that mean for me?  It changes everything if I really believe it.  My perspective on going to the classroom visit changed so completely– I realized how amazing it is that in that classroom we would bring the glory of Jesus Christ!  That Jesus has the power to make glorious Owen and Annie’s struggles with Japanese… that even just focusing on the gloriousness of Christ can alter the way that I view this day.  Truly, my eyes have seen the beauty of enormous things.  I continue to be amazed at the graciousness of our Savior in so many ways in our lives.  He make all things glorious.

I found this wonderful Christmas Eve sermon excerpt by Rob Sturdy:

When you think of Bethlehem, you don’t think of a pathetic, one horse town, you think of an idyllic city that was the home of the baby Jesus. When you think of a manger, you don’t think of disease and hay, you think of a beautiful baby, calm, glowing with supernatural splendor. This is because God, in Jesus, can make all things glorious. Even if he’s laid in the most disgusting feeding trough, it is no longer a trough but a manger, more than that. It becomes the fulcrum of songs sung with joy, something to be delighted in! As Spurgeon says of the manger, it was only his presence that could glorify the manger. Anything that comes into contact with Jesus, whether it be Bethlehem, or a manger, or Joseph, or Mary, a leper or paralytic, a thief, all these things are made glorious by his touch.   Most importantly Jesus makes the cross glorious. On the cross, where he takes on the sins of the world and dies upon the tree, that instrument of death is made glorious.   The tomb he is laid in, the place of death is emptied and is made glorious. And the disciples, no longer doubting cowards but brave apostles, come into contact with Jesus and are transformed, made glorious.

And he not only does this with things we read about in books, but he can do this with you. A failing marriage, the savior can make glorious. Fractured relationships with children, the savior can make glorious. A drug addict or alcoholic, touch them to Jesus and he will make them glorious. And you, with thoughts and actions that you are too ashamed to tell anyone about, rotting away in the soul, Jesus can make you glorious as well. Because he makes glorious anything he touches.