Emmanuel

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” (Psalm 139:7)

On a Sunday a few weeks ago, I was the worship leader for that day’s worship service at my church. I was driving to church by myself, and on the way I felt unusually thirsty, and even though I was in a hurry to get to church, I had to stop by a supermarket on the way to buy water. So I went into a Safeway, grabbed a bottle of water, and then headed towards the check out line.

There was another customer ahead of me, and the cashier, who was a Hispanic male, was really slow and clumsy in processing that customer. I looked at my watch and I was getting really impatient and thinking in my heart that this cashier was not a bright person. I was determined in my heart to be bitter and angry toward this cashier and to blame everything on him for me being late to church.

But when it was my turn, I looked at the cashier, and I gasped! The employee badge that he was wearing said: “Jesus C.”!!! God showed up again to tell me that He’s omnipresent and that He knows my bitter and sinful thoughts, even in the littlest things of my daily life…

Coincidentally (or maybe not coincidentally), the worship song set list that Sunday morning , which I put together, included the HKACM song “Emmanuel” (Emmanuel, 神與我同在, …). Humbly, I shared this story at church before leading the song. It’s one of the most memorable lessons in worship for me.