He climbed up onto the seat with me! and then he told me that sometimes, he throws up on the rides. andddd that other times, when he doesn’t throw up, he pees himself! (ahahah I assured him that we were gonna have a jolly ‘ole time though, free of all bodily functions escaping!)
The Lord of the universe revealed Himself last night in a giggly, bright-eyed, thrilled-about-life(and the fair)-eight year old boy. I saw Him in his smile, the brightest, missing-both-front-teeth smile I have ever seen, that is. I saw Him in the laughter we shared during the brief two minutes that we knew each other existed. In the way that I was given the opportunity to love on this little boy, who I will likely never see again. I saw the Lord as we threw our hands up while the ride was in full swing, and had the time of our lives enjoying each other’s company. I saw the Lord as my new little buddy of two minutes felt safe enough to bury his head in my shoulder as he got dizzy from the ride, and as we looked out at our blurry view from the spinning so he could point his family out to me.
So often, I think we try to confine the Presence of the Lord to a Book (though it is holy and can be found there), or a church service. I can’t imagine though, why the Lord of the heavens and earth, the maker of the moon and the stars, would put those limitations on himself, and the truth of the matter is, he doesn’t. what if religion, our finite thinking and focus on worldly things has caused us the misunderstanding that we have to go a certain place, or do a certain thing or act a certain way to behold the Presence of the Almighty? What if we were intentional about seeking out the Lord in all things?
I came across these verses in the MSG translation of the Bible and I think the paraphrase is beautiful and worth sharing. Acts 17:24-29 says “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote, he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?”
We all know that the veil was torn, thank God! We know that we have access to the Lord of the universe. the Creator of alllll the things. the Giver of every good and perfect gift, Saver of our souls, and Light of the world. Perhaps though, we fail to realize that the torn veil means that HE ALSO COMES OUT TO US!! How hecking cool is that?! Thanks to Jesus, not only do we have access to go to the Father but He is able to come out to us. and go to the fair with us!! and have dance parties with us!! and be in the midst of our friendships and coffee dates and long drives in the middle of nowhere!!
What if finding the Lord is as easy as opening our eyes, and to miss Him, is to not look for Him at all?
May we be a people who find the Lord in the mundane, but also the extraordinary, in the good times but also the tough ones. because I can promise you, He’s there. He has always been, and He will never stop being right there in the midst, He’s only waiting for us to take notice.
