It’s cold and it’s windy but it’s beautiful out there this morning anyway, with the sunrise painting the clouds pink and yesterday’s pasty snow clinging to tree branches like a Currier and Ives holiday scene. Just maybe, this weekend is winter’s last gasp, but because this is New England and since it snowed seven inches in May last year, I doubt it. Even so, the dawn of a new season of Daylight Savings Time signals that, just as it has been forever, warmer weather is ahead eventually and spring will arrive on time…eventually. I can almost smell it all now…
…Often, after I grab my coffee first thing in the morning, I’ll do something like John Muir did—I’ll just breathe in deeply and thank God that it’s His breath in my lungs to live another day for His glory. That’s not weird, that’s “seeing” and feeling the Words on a page come alive:
“This God is the One who gives life, breath, and everything else to people. He does not need any help from them; He has everything he needs.”
—Acts 17:25, New Century Version
For the start of any new day, breathing that in always puts a lot of things in their right perspective. When you “see “ God, you see really well. With so much heaviness and troubles in our world and in the news, we all need that recalibration to remember that we are never alone and that He is always “God with us” and not off preoccupied with someone or something else more important.
Many people think that they can’t “see” God in the everyday, but His artistry and majesty and faithfulness and steadfastness in a crazy world can be seen in all four seasons, and in everyday life. It’s probably one reason why Jesus painted everyday pictures in words to help others better understand and “see” the God who made and loves them. Every everyday picture tells a story if only we will look for it. For instance, I remember a time driving down the highway with one contact lens in focus and the other not quite right, and somehow I knew God was trying to show me something about living well that was more than just about malfunctioning eyewear. You don’t have to be special. Anyone can “see” God in the everyday. so long as you’re looking for Him. As the young prophet Jeremiah wrote:
“You will find Me when you seek Me, if you seek Me in earnest.”
—Jeremiah 29:13, Living Bible
I was reminded of this in a jaw-dropping sort of way one day last summer. I woke up one morning in Maine surprised to see the sun when all the forecasts were dead-on promising rain. I thought I was just doing an everyday unspiritual thing like walking the beach. My everyday thoughts were not on church things but on everyday “to do” things and on how my grumbling stomach needed breakfast. But I must have remembered John Muir and that holy breath in my lungs while taking an everyday step on the low-tide hard-pack because I decided to check my phone app for the verse of the day. You know, just to see what it says. And it was this: “The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and the expanse of heaven is declaring the work of His hands. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night reveals knowledge.”—Psalm 19:1-2
And then I happened to look up and then out over the ocean, as I often do on an everyday kind of beach walk. I could not believe my eyes—I was “seeing” what God had just said about Himself (pictured)—the vast expanse of sea and sky, with the sun advancing on one side and storm clouds retreating slowly in the other direction. Mic drop.
And it’s just as true on a frigid Sunday in March as it was that summer day....
Our God …is…always…speaking to us in our everyday. We just need to look for Him.
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