The moment between breaths

 Today I was privileged to pray at the beside of a parishioner who had just died and then moments later I held a brand new baby, only about 5 hours old.  As a pastor we get invited into this intimate moments in people's lives. Since the birth of my own children, a verse from, the great hymn of the church, Because He Lives has become especially meaningful:

      "How sweet to hold a new born baby and feel the love and joy he brings, but greater still the calm assurance, this child can face uncertain days because he lives."

Both birth and death are resurrection moments.  Only one breath separates us from this life and the life to come.  I cannot begin to imagine all the uncertain days that the new baby might face in her lifetime and yet, I know that God will be with her, just as God tenderly and lovingly cared for the deceased.  I stood today on holy ground in that moment between breaths keenly aware that my presence was an expression of God's eternal care.

In that moment between breaths, we,too, face uncertain days.  For me, the post election days have felt very uncertain.  Division, exclusion, fear, and hate seem to be occupying the space between breaths and suffocating us and preventing us from fully noticing God.  We are in need of resurrection.  Perhaps we could let hate die, so that love might be delivered and birthed among us.  Perhaps we could resurrect the moment between breaths as an opportunity to live and proclaim that God is with us.