Do You See God All Around You?

 

How often do you notice God in the world around you? 

It's more complicated than it seems, made even more so because so many things distract us from experiencing the Divine in our lives. 

I love a routine more than most people, I imagine.  I like waking up at the same time every day, getting my coffee, and going through my morning rituals.  I even enjoy eating the same thing for breakfast most days; it cuts down on the time I have to spend thinking about it. 

But I also know that getting too stuck in a routine can result in my spending most of my time focusing on the six inches in front of my face and not taking the time to stop, look around, and pay attention to the wonders of the world.

Many of us can get so task-oriented that we neglect our souls.  We worry too much about what needs to get done that we lose sight of why we are doing it all in the first place. 

And there is also a fair amount of noise in our lives, the noise of emails arriving in our inbox, the TV blaring awful news, the voices in our heads reminding us of how we're not measuring up, the anxiety that comes from the cares of this world, and the darkness that can settle on us when we least expect it. 

But when we are willing to take the time to be present---in Creation, in our solitude and silence, and even in the company of others--we find that we just might see better, and when we do, our perception can show us where God has been all along. 

God is in the bird that sings on the bird feeder outside my window. 

God is in the sound of the garbage truck lumbering down the road, doing the essential and necessary work of removing what needs to be discarded. 

God is in the changing colors of the sky as the sun flickers through mid-winter clouds, red, then orange-yellow, blue, and green.  

God is in the smell of woodsmoke on a crisp, cool morning when every breath feels like a sharp symbol that I am alive and breathing. 

God is in the sound of my son shuffling to the shower in the morning, reminding me that I have fewer days to fix his breakfast and see him off to school before he's grown and gone. 

God is in the quiet and the stillness when I close my eyes, smell my coffee and remember who I am.  Sometimes it takes coffee to do this properly, you know. 

Elizabeth Dreyer once wrote: 

“In a profound way, our intentionality is a key ingredient determining whether we notice God everywhere or only in church or only in suffering or nowhere. It all depends on how we choose to fashion our world.”

So how will you fashion your world today and every day from this day?  Will you choose to focus on all that must be done, or will you choose to focus on how you must be?  

Will you intentionally seek moments where you can feel the presence of God in the ordinary, in the stillness, in the quiet?  Will you allow yourself to see and hear with your whole being? 

May you do this and find God all around you and in you.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.