of the first God Moments.One day I took my children skateboarding at the local skate park. While paying the admission fee I was told that there was a woman upstairs in the viewing area who has six children. "Interesting introduction" I thought while proceeding upstairs to watch my children as they navigated the ramps. Seated in a chair was a woman holding a baby and flanked by several young children.
We started talking and discovered that we have something in common besides absolutely loving motherhood - both of us are authors. We bought each others' books and I found her book of adoption stories to be so beautiful, faith filled, meaningful, and inspiring that I wrote a review. Meeting Coreen was certainly a God moment. Later I realized that our meeting was even more significant than I had thought.
Little did I know when I met Coreen that God had started a sequence of events that would lead up to my next book. Originally my plan was to begin writing a book on the Eucharist after finishing two Catholic books for youth. As the days and months passed many people shared their inspiring accounts of extraordinary events with me. Then one day while talking to a friend outside the church after daily Mass, in the rain, I experienced another God moment. Right then and there I was given the assignment to write this book. At that time I also understood very clearly that certain events which occurred within the past year happened to prepare me for this book. That moment was so beautiful, because the great love that God has for every person was very obvious. He had me write and compile “God Moments” for you.
Even the front cover came to fruition through a series of God moments. I wanted the cover of the book to be very meaningful and reflect the significance of the stories that are shared in the book. I already had several images in mind to depict an appropriate metaphor for the grand and eternal picture that is created through our God moments.
Soon after receiving the assignment I contacted my dear friend and gifted graphic designer Roseann Nieman. Roseann is the creative genius behind the images of Joseph Karl Publishing and Apostolate Films. Partnering with Roseann to create exceptional Catholic books was the result of another God moment. I was in need of a graphic designer and one day following Sunday Mass, Roseann approached me to say hello. During the conversation she mentioned that she was returning to work in graphic design. We have been working together ever since.
Right from the start Roseann told me she had the picture for the cover of the book. She also came up with the title. Although I was fond of my ideas, God gently encouraged me to let Roseann design the cover on her own. So I e-mailed her and gave her total artistic privilege. The day I met with Roseann to see her prototype cover of the book I was astounded, absolutely delighted, but not surprised. All along she knew that she had the picture for the cover of the book, which she took during a God moment while in a boat on a lake in Michigan. What do you see in the picture?
God moments are very special and significant events that have great meaning and purpose. They may involve angels, saints, people, animals, or anything in God's great creation. Always they involve an encounter with the Divine. Perhaps they are meant to challenge or change us, encourage and inspire us, motivate us, sooth us, or prepare us. Sometimes they occur over time for reasons that we do not immediately understand.
We can be confident that God always loves us, remains with us, and is our strength and our hope. Our challenge is to recognize, believe, take action, trust, or sometimes wait, always loving in greater measure. May “God Moments” help you to recognize such moments in your own life as you consider their significance and their purpose.
Michele Elena Bondi
Holy Week, 2010
…for God,
all things are possible.
–Matthew 19:26
all things are possible.
–Matthew 19:26
