5am, Tuesday 27th. So here I am, on route home to Sydney from welcoming our first little NYC born grandson into the world! About to land within the hour, to then race home, shower and excitedly make my way to yet another maternity hospital to welcome our second little grandson. My friend Christine text me in the LA transit lounge and said, “why be NORMAL when you can have two grandsons born within five days on opposite sides of the planet”.

What she said is so true of this crazy, exciting “exceeding, abundant and above life” we seem to find ourselves within at the moment. My favorite hashtag #mycuprunnethover (which I basically save for weddings, births and over the top family moments) is being well used this week.

However all this aside – I just asked the lovely flight attendant for a coffee. A few moments later she came back and said “my colleague wants to make it for you, because she thinks you’re lovely”. To which I smiled and said, “Really, why does she think that?” I hadn’t done anything especially lovely. I had basically gotten on the plane in LA and almost fell asleep before buckling up. “Oh, she just thinks you are calm and lovely.” I then replied, “but aren’t most people like this?” (Of course I know they aren’t but everyone around me on the plane seemed very nice).

We continued talking and the conversation made me wonder (yet again) about the presence we sometimes unconsciously carry on our lives as followers of Christ. Not saying we are all a bunch of perfect, peace-loving people with an aura of sainthood floating around us, and perhaps flight attendants are trained to say this to customers – but perhaps there is an “air of something lovely” on our lives that is perceived or noticed by those unaccustomed to it.

To be honest I hope there is. I hope the beautiful presence of our Savior King and His stunning Spirit CAN be felt when we enter rooms and enter conversations and enter encounters. I hope there is a depth to our words, our actions, our responses or simply our very presence that fuels intrigue.

They say of Jesus that there was nothing becoming or attractive to his physical appearance, yet I know for sure that there was something VERY BECOMING AND VERY ATTRACTIVE of His spirit and presence. He was and is the magnificent Son of God. Demons trembled when He drew near, the blind lifted their heads as he passed, the broken and ailing knew that even the touch of his garment would bring wholeness.

Mark’s gospel (which I was reading on this flight, as the sun outside rose on what will be my second baby grandsons birth-day) tells how Jesus sent the disciples on their way. He told them they had authority and power. He told them to keep it simple. He told them to remain humble and trust. And then it says (in the Message paraphrase) “then they were on the road preaching with joyful urgency that life can be radically different.

I pray our lives exemplify a joyful urgency that life can be radically different.

I didn’t preach or witness to these flight attendants. I sowed enough seed that if they wanted to know more they could ask, but hopefully in simply being kind, grateful, polite, engaged, gracious they saw or sensed enough to make their job enjoyable tonight.

Jesus said in these same passages, “YOU are the equipment”. We don’t need much else. You and I, with Christ calmly and beautifully within, are all that is needed. It’s a simple truth, a calming truth, an empowering truth.

So now we are about to land – so I pray these wee thoughts encourage you to have a blessed and productive day. Let’s LOVE that Christ lives within, let’s allow His goodness to LIVE within and lets allow it to OOZE out wherever and in whatever way He decides.

Have a groovy day. Be blessed. Brian and I love you.

Bobbie