Gnade: The Other Scale

Today, the Stu(e)rmer's and I left around 10:30 to go to a baptism of a beautiful little girl, Enya. It was a Catholic ceremony that lasted about two hours, all in Swiss German. I understood only the slightest bit because of the movements and motions from people, and possibly a bit from the Holy Spirit. Then, we all went to the little girl's family's house for a wonderful barbeque and I got to talk American politics, political geography, US mentality and Swiss government with an Englishman, a Swiss man (the father of the girl), and a Licktenstein (spelled like I would pronounce it) man. I learned a lot about who people from England consider British (as in, NOT Northern Irish people), how the Swiss government works (as the English guy said, "Most things in Swiss are forbidden. If it's not forbidden, it's obligatory") and what people think of Americans ("blissfully unaware, but we can understand how it's not REALLY their fault").
Then, we went to the Bern Vineyard, which is the largest church in Bern (with over 1,000 people; they have three services every Sunday). Worship was in German, sermon was in German and announce - ments were in German, but there was English translation. I ran into the two guys from Bern I met in Dublin at the Dublin Vineyard last month! I also got connected with a girl who is going to take me to a group doing some social and community service in Bern on Tuesday. During worship, I felt such a sense of peace - peace and faith like I'd never felt before in my life. The sermon was incredible, too. It was all about grace: It is hard to define grace, but one we can go about it is to imagine a world without grace. I immediately had the thought that "the world" wouldn't exist because LIFE at all is grace and grace is LIFE. Then, he went on to talk about how if we see absolutely everything in our lives as grace we will not grasp, we will not hurt as much and we will be....FREE. The world does not owe us anything, life does not owe us anything, we didn't ask to be here...and those are some different scales by which to measure life, ja? He compared it to forgiveness and gave the best definition of forgiveness I've ever heard: "Forgiveness is trusting God."
I am learning "release" here - things don't happen on my watch, but they still happen. Matthias takes care of me and his family and it doesn't need to happen any faster than it is happening. People here in general are SO laid back, and they are true to their word. Just because something doesn't happen right away doesn't mean it won't happen. I'm getting it, Lord: "Megan, relax."
Oh, and the CD that the Bern Vineyard gave me has my favorite song on it - I have been unable to find it ever since I heard it about two years ago at my Vineyard (we haven't sung it since)....as the first song.

...Creator God He is Yahweh
Lord of all He is Yahweh
Three in One He is Yahweh...

Danke, Herr Jesus, fu(e)r gnade.

Now, we are watching a movie in English with German subtitles - "The Bank Job" (previews in German). "We" as in the adults. :-). With wine and popcorn. Fellowship is AWESOME.
Speaking of adults, I LOVE Anita. She is a petite, gorgeous Swiss lady who is so soft, so sweet and actually kinda spunky, too. Her and Matthias are so gentle with their kids, singing when they cry and are upset, laughing when they laugh, tickling to have fun - I've never heard them once their voices at either of them. Matthias says, "Our kids learn to forgive each other early. You forgive your kids early, too. And then, the day begins." That and how he treats his wife reveals something of the deep-heart of God to me. God bless Matthias and his beautiful family.

(P.S. Sorry about the picture quality - they were taken on the run a bit...mostly because I forgot for a second that I was traveler and not just at home...).