Job 42:5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”
One of my friends works with teenage girls. She recently said she was trying to train them to recognize God in their circumstances. I couldn’t help but think what an apt word: train. Realizing God in the day-to-day doesn’t come naturally. We have to train ourselves (or others) in how to connect the dots. Elizabeth Barrett Browning penned,
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.
Seeing God working in everyday life makes everyday life exponentially better. My husband and I recently attended a production at Sight and Sound theatre where one of my former students was performing. Our seats were located close to the wall in the upper level of the 2,047-seat auditorium. As the show opened, we searched intently to find Richard. He was a “swing” actor, which meant he didn’t know from performance to performance, which part he would play. Then we spotted him on the part of the stage right next to us. We figured he must have arranged us to sit there so we would be sure not to miss him. But he didn’t! Our seats were “randomly” chosen at the ticket booth. And we realized only a sovereign God could arrange such a “coincidence.”
All too often we get stuck looking at our circumstances solely through natural lenses. For instance, take Job. Job had heard about God. But before he could truly see him, he had to remove his own way of looking at things. Only then would he recognize the God he had heard about. And it transformed him into a new man.
As long as we view life by what’s immediately in front of us, we will miss the beauty and glory of God. We’ll be like those in Browning’s poem, content to pluck blackberries, oblivious to God’s presence.
Recently, I’ve been singing It Had To Be You every time I identify God’s divine orchestration in my life. No one else could thread my circumstances into a thing of purpose and beauty. Only a loving sovereign God can infuse the everyday with something holy. Something that makes me take off my shoes.
How about you?