🌟 THE HOLY INSTANT: A SEASON OF PRESENCE

Susan Hoyle INHC
Nov 23
2 min read

🌟 THE HOLY INSTANT: A SEASON OF PRESENCE

There is a different rhythm to this holiday season for me.

A softer one.

A quieter one.

A life led more by presence than pressure.

Maybe it’s age.

Maybe it’s healing.

Maybe it’s the Holy Spirit whispering in the small hours of the morning…

but something in me no longer wants to rush through this time of year.

I want to feel it.

I want to be awake for it.

I want to experience the moments, not manage them.

I’m calling this shift The Holy Instant — that magical moment of presence when time seems to pause, your spirit settles, and you can sense God in the simplest places.

It’s the quiet glow of the tree before the world wakes.

It’s a deep breath over morning coffee.

It’s a soft memory that warms instead of wounds.

It’s the awareness that right now — this moment — is sacred.

As I move through this season, I find myself savoring the people who are still here…

and remembering with love the ones who are gone — the imprint my mother and brother left on my life, the way their presence lingers in every cookie recipe, ornament, and whispered prayer.

Grief doesn’t disappear during the holidays.

But it softens into gratitude when we remember that love is what made it hurt in the first place.

And moving from Thanksgiving into December, I’m reminded of how these seasons intertwine.

Thanksgiving roots us in gratitude.

December points us toward hope.

There is something magnificent about the story of a baby born in Bethlehem — quiet, humble, yet carrying a light that changed the world.

His birth didn’t shout; it whispered.

And that whisper still softens us.

It steadies us.

It calls us back to what matters: love, grace, mercy, and the gentle presence of God woven through our everyday lives.

Not in a loud or “churchy” way.

Just a soft remembrance that because of Him, hope still rises, light still comes, and love still leads the way.