Watch For God
It’s my week to write the article here, but inspiration is slow to arrive. Some weeks the topic arrives quickly and obviously; other weeks there are several competing ideas, and I must choose among a handful of interesting ones. And then there are a few weeks, like this one, where my idea bin is empty, no matter how many times I peer into it.
I often hop over to Pinterest to flip through some quotes to see if one of them strikes a chord with me, offering up a topic to write on. There are loads of good ones which often might inspire me, but none of them seemed quite right.
On a drive after school this week, I asked my eighth-grade daughter what I should write about, and she offered that I could write about how she aced her math exam. She cheekily said that I could tell you all how God guided her to the right answers so she would pass. We laughed and I suggested that while that may be true, it also might be true that she studied and perhaps we should say that it was God that guided me to bug her to study. No, I couldn’t write about a math test.
This morning before he left for school, I asked my high school junior if he had thoughts about what topic might be good for an article. He looked at our small, blue bird and said, “Write about the bird and what he does!” Our bird brings a lot of enjoyment and laughter into our household. I don’t know that writing about the bird is quite the right topic. Still, he adds some delightful chaos to our lives and each of our four children are sweeter to him than they are to each other.
I asked Pastor Karl if he had ideas for me. I was thinking perhaps he would encourage me to write about some church event coming up or Lent or something else along those lines. He suggested perhaps I write about the beautiful sunset on Thursday night or practicing handbells. Sunsets and music do seem worthy topics. And the sunset was gorgeous and playing handbells with others is enjoyable. I can share those with you (see the lovely sunset picture and come to worship on Sunday to hear the handbell choir) but there isn’t a whole article in there to write about, at least not today for me.
At the end of the day on Thursday, past my self-imposed deadline, I was still thinking about this article and still feeling like inspiration was nowhere to be found. The week had been rather tame and a little mundane even, nothing extraordinary. But I realized that my topic had been right there all along – God is in the small, mundane things in our lives. In each interaction I had, there had been a little part of God in there. In my asking the questions about what to write on, we had paused and thought about how something or another related to God. In each topic I passed over, there had been a bit of God in there because nothing is too small or insignificant for God.
God’s fingerprints are all over our lives but often we are busy focusing on the tasks we need do that we miss them. The interactions we have with each other offer us a chance to see God’s face in another human and an invitation to love them. The joy we have with one another (or our pets) is surely God among us. The gift of music must be a gift from God. The sunset had to be a love letter from God to us. There is beauty and divinity in the mundane if we look.
At Vacation Bible School, we pass out wristbands that have, “Watch for God” emblazoned on them to each participant and volunteer. We encourage everyone to do just that – watch for how God is at work around us. Perhaps I should get mine out and heed its reminder because it is now clear to me that God is with each of us in all of parts of our lives – even the small details, like when we look for inspiration on an article.
