Where's Waldo: God Edition

Have you ever heard someone roll their eyes?

You read that right.

Have you ever HEARD someone roll their eyes?

I have.  It's almost as annoying as seeing it.

I was talking on the phone to a friend when she asked me how I always chalked up "coincidence" to God.  Everything that happens in life, regardless of situation, is somehow attributed to God in one way or another.  

Now we were on the phone with one another, but I absolutely heard the eye roll, and I called her on it.  I asked, "Why is that so hard to believe?"

She said it was arrogant to think that God would waste His time giving me these little "signs of love" when there were people starving all over the world.  She felt I was thinking too highly of myself.  God doesn't do little things (or, I guess, in her mind, He shouldn't do little things when there were BIG THINGS to be done!).  

My mind immediately thought back to that story of the little boy and the starfish.  Have you heard it?

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Moral of the story is that what may seem a little, insignificant act to you is, in fact, a life-changer for the one receiving the act. 

And I fully believe that God, the same God who condescended to become human... to lower His Divinity to take upon and raise up the dignity of Humanity... of COURSE He would seek to send us a constant stream of loving gestures throughout our lives... even the life of someone ordinary and mundane like me.

The reason I think she presumes my arrogance is that I publicly acknowledge these little love notes.  However, I don't write about them to say "Look how special I am because God keeps doing all these cool things for me!"

Instead, I'm writing them because I'm grateful that God takes such an active role in our lives.  He's not only doing these things for me, people.  He does them for each and every one of us EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.  

And you don't have to view your life as a Where's Waldo puzzle to understand that.  God's love notes to us aren't hidden behind colorful characters or disguised with a striped shirt and glasses. 

God's love is all around us.  He doesn't keep His love hidden from us!  We don't have to play seek-and-find for it!  We, however, are like children who are oblivious to Mom's constant labor to keep our clothes laundered, food on the table, and school work in order.  We do not understand how active God is in keeping our lives filled with joy.  

Even I, who apparently writes about His love too often (as if such a thing is possible!), am negligent in recognizing His constant stream of love.  We will never understand the personal attention God pays to us every second of every day.  Never.  

But it's still good to try!  

After all, how appreciated and loved do our parents feel when we acknowledge the things that, upon reflection, were worth so much than we'd ever given them credit for?  God, too, appreciates (and reciprocates) the love we give Him through our gratitude.  

And yes, I really believe God is so personally active in my life.  That doesn't make me arrogant, though, because I know He's just as personally active in your life, too.  In everyone's lives.  We are ALL His children. 

And we'd all do well to remember that (and thank Him for it!) every now and again.