It is tough for me to get lost. I know part of it is an inbred sense of direction, but there is something else. I pay attention. I look for the landmarks – the street signs, the buildings alongside the road, the curve of the highway. Even with a GPS in my car, I never use it more than once to get to the same destination. And I don’t even use it on the way home. I might not be able to tell you the names of the streets I took, but I always find my way home.
I believe as a child of God the only way to spend your life is to pay attention to the world. It’s fallen; it’s imperfect. There are parts of it that are downright ugly. But even in the ugliest, slimiest, most putrid smelling place, there is God. He showers His miracles everywhere on this earth.
He doesn’t put up a sign to say, “Watch this.” I believe that would take away the joy of us finding them. But every morning, He whispers to us, “Pay attention and prepare to be amazed.”
The cynical side of our nature, of the world, wants to speak always of the darkness of our world, the harshness, the hurt of living. It is a shattered world. In its brokenness, in its shadows, the world also reveals the most profound imagination of our Creator.
It is easy for us to only see the dark, but we are children of the Light. That means we should seek the Light in everything. It’s easy when we are youngsters. We find joy in the silliest things. Remember water sprinklers, catching snowflakes on your tongue, freezing Kool-Aid in ice trays, looking for out of state license plates on a long road trip?
Then we grow into adulthood and we lose a part of ourselves. We lose the extraordinary in the ordinary. It becomes too easy to exist rather than to live fully, freely, openly. But God is still whispering over our days, “Pay attention and prepare to be amazed.”
God’s lovesong is all about us as we walk through life. See the color of your coworker’s eyes. Hear the melody of the cars on the road. Taste the sweetness of watermelon. Look around you, for you are surrounded each and every day by His loving creativity.
Pay attention to the wind in the dark, the trees slapping against the house, the dog barking in the distance. Pay attention to the world, both the prickly wrong parts of it and the exquisitely beautiful parts of it. Drink it all in until you see His love peeking through both the darkest storms and the delicate glow of morning’s light. If you stare at it long enough, you’ll develop a longing for Home – the place where you will be welcome by God.
Today, feel His nearness; His relevance to you. If you watch the landmarks our Creator has so graciously put along our path, your heart will break with a longing for Home. Watch the landmarks that gently lead you to the One who is devoted to you. In His love, you’ll find your way Home.
Pay attention and be amazed!
