Everywhere

 

You are reading this today because of an angel. I have no other explanation for it.

Yesterday, I was in desperate need of a new power adapter for my laptop on a holiday weekend — and with the battery level sinking, I began to feel a strange panic of not being able to access what has become mission control for essential emails, writing, photographs, Bible study, music and learning what is new in the world. It wasn’t an off-the-shelf part either because my laptop is several years old, but I quickly googled for stores anyway in hopes that one might be open that might have what I need and that might not be too far away. Hope rose when I found one not that far away that claimed that what I needed was indeed in stock.

But as I walked through the door, something seemed chaotic, which tends to happen when there are lots of shoppers with lots of questions and too few employees to answer them or staff the checkout lines. I was on my own. Fortunately, it didn’t take long to find the right aisle. I walked it several times, looked high and low, and looked several more times. Nothing. Bummer. Everything else but what I needed. OK, one more trip down the aisle and back. And way at the bottom of the shelf tucked away was something kinda-sorta what I needed. I stooped down but it didn’t look right. I was just about resigned to walking out and thinking of some Plan B.

Then, the voice of an angel towering over me. That’s what I choose to believe, anyway, even though it was this big kid with a deep voice. Because of all the tucked away places in such a large and busy store with not enough help to help the customers appeared what I was convinced was the only employee available to stock shelves. And of all places, he just so happened to be doing that right next to me.

“Can I help you find something?”

“Yeah, well, I’ve looked high and low but I’m pretty sure you don’t have what I need.”

He asked what it was, and then, “You’re touching it right now. That one. That’s it. And here, you’ll need this adapter, too. You’re all set.”

I was overjoyed and filled with relief, and my knee-jerk thought was, “wow, what a coincidence, thank You, God!”

And then I remembered what kept “randomly” showing up when I opened my Bible this week: The importance of searching and seeking in everyday life.

Those two words may be the most important things for walking this Walk steadfastly through thick and thin, and finding God everywhere even when a lot of places and situations are ugly and painful. Or just plain stressful.

One day this week, the verse was “I will search for the One my heart loves,” Song of Solomon 3:2, and I wondered what the difference is between searching for God and seeking God. To seek is to look for or pursue something specific, as in “seek first the kingdom of God…” (Matthew 6:33). Search is similar, but it means to do all of that everywhere — be alert, be aware, look for God any and anywhere. Like even in a random aisle in a big store when you don’t know what to do.

This morning, the theme continued. Jesus is speaking in John 5:30: “By myself, I can do nothing… I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.” Humility? Yes. Dependence? Absolutely. But awareness of the Father everywhere? Winner. The same Jesus who says…”Follow Me.” To go and live likewise — to not be so self-absorbed that you don’t see the beauty and love of the Lord everywhere and all around you, and to make it a part of you somehow so you can somehow share it. A place. A landscape. A rainy day. A routine task. Observing compassion shown by a stranger to someone at the checkout line. A random person passing by whose innocent words in conversation jump into your life with a megaphone. A song from Heaven itself that grabs you and pulls you in to keep pressing “replay." And even, and maybe especially, in the most random of places and situations of everyday life, like a computer parts aisle in a big box store.

“He speaks to me everywhere…” Yes, yes He does! If only I will remember to pay attention.

“A man may go into the field and say his prayer and be aware of God, or he may be in Church and be aware of God; but if he is more aware of Him because he is in a quiet place, that is his own deficiency and not due to God, Who is alike present in all things and places, and is willing to give Himself everywhere so far as lies in Him... He knows God rightly who knows Him everywhere.” — Meister Eckhart