I was given a rose in church yesterday. A deep red, curled up bud just starting to unfurl.
I'm not much of a rose person. I prefer wildflowers - a bright mish-mosh of colors - or lilacs or daisies. But roses are culturally appropriate for Valentine's Day. And I'm not ungrateful. The bud vase of roses on our table is a sight more attractive than the no-decoration-whatsoever we usually look at.
I fingered the petals; brushing them out; opening the bud. Not really interested. Not really inspired.
And a whisper came unexpectedly to my soul.
I made that with my finger.
And my touch was suddenly reverent.
I was touching something made by the finger of God.
Sisters, that's how close He is to our everyday lives.
Like Michelangelo's painting of The Creation of Adam, we come every moment of our lives into contact with the finger of God. We touch what He touched. We experience what He designs. We live in the word of His power.
How easily we lose that wonder of living in our Father's world!
When the snowflakes fall and catch, stop and remember from where they came. Each one designed by the all-knowing God who decided that it would snow at that very moment before time began.
When you brush your hair, so briskly and unthinking, stop and remember that every strand is numbered by your ultimate Father who knit them together when He placed you gently in your mother's womb.
And when you interact with those in your daily life, remember that, Christians or no, they are deeply loved by the Creator of all, who is completely aware of everything about them that we cannot see and also not willing that any should perish.
It's easy to look at the ocean, the Grand Canyon, the mountain ranges, and be awed by the majesty of God. But those things don't permeate our lives on a daily basis (at least, not most of us!). The majesty of God is bursting into our everyday lives at every turn. His hand meets ours in everything we touch. And He alone has opened our eyes to see and understand that He is the source. Our hearts know who to worship because He Himself has placed that knowledge in them.
How utterly dependent and yet how utterly safe we are!
"And He is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything. Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else."
{Acts 17:25}
Love,
