How do you feel about that phrasing?? God “showing up”? I’m sure you’ve heard it plenty of times. “Boy, God really showed up today!” or “Get ready cuz I have a feeling God’s going to show up here tonight!”
I haven’t thought much about that phrase until today. But is it God that shows up? Or is it us? Don’t you think that we feel that God “shows up” when we seek Him?? Or when we just open our eyes to his goodness?? God is always here. He’s not the one coming and going. He doesn’t change. We do.
“I the Lord do not change…” ~Malachi 3:6 NCV
Let me explain why I started thinking about all of this earlier….
The past several weeks have been fairly chaotic for us. Among the chaos, adopting our child/children has felt almost like an intangible, unrealistic dream in a way. Not to mention that it can feel overwhelming and just down right draining repeatedly answering the question, “How long will you have to wait?” ... Our answer is always, “It could be 2 months, 2 years, or longer. There is no guaranteed wait time.” (Sigh….)
So, anyway, we’ve been so busy with everything else going on (work, family, Zoe, P90X, etc.), that we haven’t been talking about adoption very much. We’ll still pray about it…. But we’re just not quick to talk about it in a lot of detail on a daily basis anymore. We feel that we’ve been ready to be parents for some time now…. And it still hurts a ton that I’m not a mommy yet. It’s almost like we don’t want to face the reality of maybe having to wait even longer than we want. L So maybe if we don’t talk about it, it will help us not think about it. (That philosophy doesn't work, by the way).
Anyway, Erik and I have been talking about starting this daily devotional book that we’ve had for YEARS. We figure that no matter what, we can surely make time to sit down with each other for several minutes every day for a devotional! You know, a time to chill, to reconnect with each other and with God.
Well…. we finally started it today!
We decided to start on today’s date in the book…… and guess what April 29th’s topic was?! Adoption!!!! J In summary- - it was about practicing the compassion of Jesus and taking care of orphans. AWESOME!!!! We couldn’t believe it. We kept laughing and flipping through the book to see what some of the other topics were….. It was NOT a coincidence that today was about adoption. J
Some may say that God “showed up” today in our house. But really, He’s been here all along. God revealed to us today that He is still here, that He cares about us, that we’re on the path that He’s set out for us, that He is working on us and molding us to be the parents that He wants us to be. Here we were avoiding discussing adoption and God gently said- - I want you to talk about it.
Let’s not let our busy schedules drown out the beautiful voice of our Father. Let’s not wait for that magical moment when God “shows up”. Remember- - He’s ALWAYS here. We just have to “open our eyes” to see Him. J
“Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart.
I want to see You.
I want to see You.
To see You high and lifted up
Shining in the light of your glory
Pour out Your power and love
As we sing holy, holy, holy…”
(Open The Eyes Of My Heart by Michael W. Smith)
"When you search for me with all your heart, you will find me!" ~Jeremiah 29:13 NCV
AMEN!
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