Matthew 28"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Lord Jesus--I have been thinking about little things while looking at the sea and the sky. A lost cell phone...a lost blue shoe...a direction needed. So many times it is in the little things that I dismiss you and think that they are too small for you to be concerned about. In my mind, you are concerned with world peace, the state of economy and the instability of our present culture and lifestyle, but do you care about the little things that consume my days? All of those large issues I am sure that you intercede to the Father about.
It was just a cell phone, a symbol of connection in my time...a piece of silicon, wire and plastic. But it was a connection from vacation to home, friends and family, it was something that brings a sense of safety in a world that can be fightful. We were in H
atteras looking at the Lighthouse on a late fall day in North Carolina. As we started lunch, Sarah's phone was noticed to be missing. As we were blessing the food Jim prayed that Jesus would help us find that cell phone. As I sat there listening to the prayer a smile crossed my face...that was Jim being Jim...thoughtful, and kind to mention a cell phone over the blessing at lunch. I thought a bit about what the wait staff a little girl with the nose ring...What might she be thinking of our little clan gathered around the table holding hands and asking for blessing for our food and direction to a lost cell phone?
So the plan was set to return to the Lighthouse and retrace our steps to see if we could find a cell phone somewhere in that place of sea, sky and light. We had as usual gone out of the normal boundaries of good visitors and had tried to find the ocean to get pictures of the light house from the ocean. I was not terribly hopeful as we fanned out to our assigned locations to search, Janice was going to the shop that sold trinkets to see if it had been turned in.
The rest of us traced steps where the cell phone could be. Jim and I had just start to scan the ground on our piece of ground when we heard Jay and Sarah calling to us that they had found the cell on the ground and in working order. Amazing.
So that brings me to the question that is running through these brain cells tonight. Does Jesus care about little things like cell phones? Yes. Is He with us in our days filled with lost cell phones and dropped connections? Absolutely. Thank you James for the reminder over lunch...Thank You Jesus for the reminder over a found cell phone in working order on the grass at Hatteras.
I gues
s that would have past as a memory of a vacation spent on a sand bar over Thanksgiving had it not been for a pair of blue crocks that Bee was wearing on the beach. Melody, Bee and I were walking the beach...there were the waves and chasing after a little one while taking pictures of the seagulls and the waves. It was windy and the waves were rough. Bee tired of walking and at some point her blue crock shoes got put in the pocket of my jacket. She ended up on my shoulders as we walked back against the wind toward the house. The dunes were steep as we worked at getting all of us back to the house. It was as we started across the dunes that I noticed I only had one blue crock...blue is Bee's favorite color after all. 
As I walked down the beach back towards where we had been looking for a blue little crock shoe, I was praying...God of wind and waves, of redemption, and of grace so amazing, can you watch over a blue crock shoe of this little one? Can you guide my steps to find a little bit of blue plastic in all of this sand and wind.
I sensed you with me on that beach in the wind. You were talking to me of a God who cares about little things and big. A God that uses all of the incidents of my life to form your image in my heart each day that I am willing to include you in my wanderings. You want to have unrestricted access to my heart and mind, not just in time of quiet reflection, but right in the middle of the mix it up day that I almost always have.
Your presence with me in the small things confirms in my heart that you are with me in the large things. You are with me in the smile toward a stranger who seems to have his face frozen in a permanent grimace. You are with me as I try to connect with the store clerk with a joke. You are with me when I think of the future and what direction you would have me set in the coming year with church and family...you are with me even as we approach the end of the age. I need fear nothing but not including you in the little things of my life...the very places where you are needed the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment