The Bartok concert made me think of this man I knew when I was a child, this man who to me seemed to be hundreds of years old. Every Sunday morning he stood up in church and played his wooden flute for ten or fifteen minutes. No lyrics, no sheet music, no microphones. Just his awesome music and God. And he did not just play music. He kind of sang through the flute too, with a guttural sound, something you never heard before. Something which made time stop. Where is he now? Where is his holy flute and music? I do not even remember his name or if I ever even talked to him. Just the flute moments.

I still remember being a brainless high-school kid in 1989 when Ceausescu was arrested during the revolution. I remember grabbing a can of red spray-paint and going downtown Alexandria to write “Death to the Dictator” on every wall I could find. I remember a week later Ceausescu’s execution on television, and I remember my moments of deep sorrows and regrets for his death. Why?

I also remember seeing a small boy falling from the tenth-story balcony of a building. I was there, right next to him on the ground. I saw his disfigured face and contortioned body. And I saw his big brown eyes staring at the sky as a man wrapped him in a blanked and took him to the hospital. He died. Perhaps I will never know why, but I know that God was there, comforting him. That was his moment.

I thought of the beautiful Greek Orthodox churches, where you just have to whisper when you walk in, built to make one tear up in awe of beauty and majesty. God's beauty and majesty. God's moment.

I remember when my daughter Jade was born, and I was looking at this brand new human being and not knowing what to make of all the new feelings I was experiencing. The best I could come up with was “this is how God must feel.”

So, what is your Bartok moment? Do you see God all around you? I used to believe that only Preterists or only Christians can see God. But isn’t God’s glory everywhere? We read in the Bible that “the whole Earth is full of his glory.” The Hebrew word “kavod” used for God’s glory actually means “significance” or “weight.” How cool is that? The whole Earth is full of God’s significance and weight!

The Bartok moment.

The flute moment.

The execution moment.

The little-boy moment.

God's moment.

The birth moment.

They all are full of God’s weight and significance. And consequently we are full of God’s weight and significance; all of us, because of our moments.

That is why these raw moments, the moments of God’s “kavod” are so significant; to everyone, of all religions, all faiths, all times and all places. God’s significance and weight, his “kavod” transcends us, and touches us all through our Bartok moments. It’s not our choice to reject it, and it is bigger than Preterism, bigger than Christianity, bigger than the Church. It is also smaller than all these things. It is in Bartok, a wooden flute, a sunrise, a flower, a Starbucks cappuccino, and the death of an unknown boy somewhere on this planet.