The Vortex, The Cross

The first of these visions began two Sundays ago, the week of the youth retreat.  I saw what seem like a slow turning vortex turning in the center of the sanctuary gathering "wisps" of worship that seemed to be coming off of the hearts of people as they were singing.  The vortex seemed to strenghthen and seemed as though it was going to become much stronger (I attended 2nd service.)  This made sense later, when I saw all of the youth flooding the third service, where an intense worshiping took place.  I imagine that vortex must have become much like an F5 tornado spiraling worship up to the throne of heaven!

This week, when I entered the sanctuary, again at second service, I saw the same thing, except instead of "wisps," I saw butterflies flying up from the hearts of the worshipers.   How interesting that one of the symbols of the resurrection would show up in this particular vision, on Palm Sunday.  The butterflies also amassed and turned in a spiral like a vortex in the center of the sanctuary, as in the same way as last week.  There was a sense of worship building over the  duration of the service, an "adding to" if you will.  I would love to hear what happened in third service this week!

In addition to this, there was an additional, striking visual that caused my heart to open and my knees to buckle as I absorbed the obvious significance of it:  When we were invited to come write our sins on the banner laid out between the two artists on the runway in front of the cross, during worship, I suddenly saw the red drape around the cross at the end of the platform run red like blood.  The blood ran across the runway and flooded the banner, where all the sin had been written down.  I didn't actually make it up there during that song, because I was overwhelmed by the visual.  I did, however, go up during the invitation song, and when I wrote my own sin on that banner, and I thought about the blood spilt at my expense, I found myself weeping over that runway...not just in guilt..but in thankfulness...that Jesus would love me THAT much... that he would love YOU...THAT much.

How appropriate that the music being sung was Michael Liter's words:

Your blood...has washed away my sin,
Jesus thank you
The father's wrath... completely satisfied
Jesus thank you
Once your enemy... now seated at your table
Jesus...THANK YOU!