Have you ever woken up, looked at your phone and felt dread?
I just did. However, it wasn’t the sort of dread that comes from a nasty text or a draining person asking for your time while asleep. It wasn’t the sort of dread that comes from a calendar reminder of a meeting that is likely to be difficult. My most recent encounter with dread, induced by my electronic device, were beautiful pictures sent last night at 11:22pm.
Last night in my neighborhood, I could have viewed something that I’ve been looking forward to for years: aurora borealis. The northern lights are an amazing spectacle I’ve never seen and been strategizing toward for quite some time. Normally always viewed in the extreme North, last night they were able to be viewed in my backyard. What?! Are you effing kidding me?!
I’ve known that I need to get back to the Arctic Circle or a first journey to Iceland or some other really cool place to see this natural wonder. Or at least that’s what I thought. I knew it was going to take time and money, so I’ve been delaying it for other more necessary things and important experiences. But I just missed an opportunity to view a bucket list item. The reason is a combination of I didn’t know, and I didn’t believe.
I did all I could to tell as many people as possible about the recent solar eclipse. I must have no friends who have seen the northern lights to clue me in, or none that cared enough to inform me what could happen. I did see something yesterday in my newsfeed to the tune of “aurora borealis could be seen in Alabama tonight.” I shrugged it off as fake news or click bait. It truly is horrible that we can’t believe anything we read anymore, even when it is true.
As I sit this morning having my time with God, I’m simultaneously deflated and motivated. Deflated because I could have experienced a bucket list item if I only took a chance and stayed up until 11:22pm. Motivated because I’m driven to notice the wonders that could be seen right under my nose without great expenditures of time and money. Sometimes beautiful blessings are on a lower branch dangling right in front of our face, but we have our head down and won’t look up ever so slightly to snatch a juicy piece of fruit.
Our closest couple friends just moved into the neighborhood. What a beautiful thing! Tonight several couples from Crossroads, the church I started and lead, who live within walking distance are coming over for dinner. In our age of isolation, that is a rare wonder that we get to enjoy. Today, I will go out to the garage to touch up the paint job on my Jeep CJ-7 restoration project. When I look at it, I can’t believe I’ve brought it from disrepair to near wonder. It’s like what God does to us. It isn’t a garage project as much as it is a metaphor of my relationship with God, which warms my heart and is right under my nose.
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. I can’t believe how God has blessed me with Lib as the mother of my three children and the grandmother of our five grandkids. Everyone will be at our house and it will be wild, loud, and messy. Given my learning today, instead of allowing the sounds and the stress of the mess to distract me, I’m going to lift up my head and enjoy the luscious fruit of a healthy and loving family.
Time to re-double down on taking advantage of life and the opportunities that are right under our noses. How many of us don’t notice the blessing of our friends and tell them? How many of us have amazing opportunities to experience God through rare ministries at Crossroads, that are right under our noses, and we always find a reason not to delay our habitual patterns and stay up past 11:22pm?
Life is a blessing with God’s fingerprints and fruit everywhere. Grab it—and taste and see that He is good.
Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
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