My middle son, Orion, came to me today after searching before breakfast for the Easter eggs and baskets that the Easter Bunny left today and was still looking for more eggs after breakfast! He said, “I wish we could never stop finding Easter eggs!” I thought that sounded good. It made me think that maybe, in Eternal Life in the new earth, God would have it set up that way so that when we get there, we’d get to our room in our Dad’s house and there would be an Easter egg just waiting for us where we’d be sure to find I! The next day, there’d be another we’d find when we went on a walk and another when we got back. I said to myself, ‘That would be my idea of heaven.’ But why would we need Easter eggs in heaven, when we’d have Jesus there to talk to and to walk with in person? Then, I realized, we can and do have that heaven on earth right now!
I believe that is exactly how God has set things up here already! However, we only seem to look for Easter eggs on Easter. We don’t actively look for Easter eggs on July 4th, on our birthdays, or even on seemingly ordinary days. (Sure, we may find a stray egg in the weeks following Easter that we overlooked on the day, but that doesn’t mean Bunny didn’t hide them on Easter. But those are the obvious ones that we stumble onto, and there is no doubt where they came from.) The same is true of Jesus as he shows up in our day-to-day lives. There are times when we stumble upon him by discovering the gift he has left for us, and there is little doubt the gift we find comes from God. Other times, we try to go where we think God is. We may look for him at church, or on Holy days, and we may find him.
But, I think the majority of the times Jesus shows up, we don’t see it. We don’t see him. We don’t know it’s him (God can be very subtle in the ways he shows up in our lives.) Usually we don’t actively search out God in our everyday lives. We don’t go to church everyday. We don’t read our Bible every day. We don’t wake up looking for God to appear anywhere except where we think he will be. We don’t think he will be in the song of the birds outside, in the sunrise, in the soft grass beneath our feet. We don’t think he’s in the hug of our children or the smile of our spouse. We don’t think he’s in that last crank of our weak battery that finally starts our engines on a cold morning. We don’t usually make that connection (we don’t put that piece together in the puzzle). We may dismiss it as “good luck” or “consequence.” If you get a good deal on something you really want or need, is it luck, coincidence, or will you choose to see it as finding an Easter egg that God has left – maybe specifically for you and no other?
But, I want more gifts from God than just on special occasions. Even more than the gifts he gives me, I want those interactions, those connections, those encounters with Jesus everyday… maybe even more than once a day! And, I think that is exactly how this world is set up. God is awesome. We know this from the Bible stories and from our personal experiences, but God can also be very subtle. We often miss the subtleness of God in the pages of scripture, but it’s there. So, too, we often miss God’s showing up in our everyday lives because we are not looking for him to be there, but he is. I believe that God, specifically Jesus, shows up possibly many times during our ordinary day and would exist in our conscious mind if we were to only look for him. Sure, it’s a mindset, and sometimes you have to choose to believe that you see Jesus in circumstances. But whether he is really there, or you’re just seeing things through eyes of hope, either way, it’s a better way to live.
I think my job as a Redemptive Prophet, is to help people see God. To help them realize the truth of their situation and give them tools that they can use to find him. The first and basic tool to find God is to search for him every day. Kind of obvious when I think about it. He told me to do that in the bible, “Seek first his kingdom…” “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” ~Revelation 3:20. Yet, so many times I’ve just not looked for Jesus to show up in my life. That doesn’t mean he isn’t here, just that I rarely hear him knocking. I don’t often hear the knocking, and I don’t often even hear his voice as he’s calling out my name! On those rare occasions that I hear him, and am not afraid to open the door, I let Jesus into my life for a quick chat then usher him out again or just leave him there in the entryway as I scoot out to my next appointment. There never seems to be any lingering. I haven’t realized that I could invite Jesus in, cancel my schedule for the rest of the day, and just be with him. (Or even invite him along to my other appointments!) But God always goes one step further. The Good News is, we don’t have to sit and wait for him to knock. We can go out and search for him every day and I believe we can find him… We can find Easter eggs that he’s hidden for us in the tall grass and many times simply hidden in plain sight.
I believe that is exactly how God has set things up here already! However, we only seem to look for Easter eggs on Easter. We don’t actively look for Easter eggs on July 4th, on our birthdays, or even on seemingly ordinary days. (Sure, we may find a stray egg in the weeks following Easter that we overlooked on the day, but that doesn’t mean Bunny didn’t hide them on Easter. But those are the obvious ones that we stumble onto, and there is no doubt where they came from.) The same is true of Jesus as he shows up in our day-to-day lives. There are times when we stumble upon him by discovering the gift he has left for us, and there is little doubt the gift we find comes from God. Other times, we try to go where we think God is. We may look for him at church, or on Holy days, and we may find him.
But, I think the majority of the times Jesus shows up, we don’t see it. We don’t see him. We don’t know it’s him (God can be very subtle in the ways he shows up in our lives.) Usually we don’t actively search out God in our everyday lives. We don’t go to church everyday. We don’t read our Bible every day. We don’t wake up looking for God to appear anywhere except where we think he will be. We don’t think he will be in the song of the birds outside, in the sunrise, in the soft grass beneath our feet. We don’t think he’s in the hug of our children or the smile of our spouse. We don’t think he’s in that last crank of our weak battery that finally starts our engines on a cold morning. We don’t usually make that connection (we don’t put that piece together in the puzzle). We may dismiss it as “good luck” or “consequence.” If you get a good deal on something you really want or need, is it luck, coincidence, or will you choose to see it as finding an Easter egg that God has left – maybe specifically for you and no other?
But, I want more gifts from God than just on special occasions. Even more than the gifts he gives me, I want those interactions, those connections, those encounters with Jesus everyday… maybe even more than once a day! And, I think that is exactly how this world is set up. God is awesome. We know this from the Bible stories and from our personal experiences, but God can also be very subtle. We often miss the subtleness of God in the pages of scripture, but it’s there. So, too, we often miss God’s showing up in our everyday lives because we are not looking for him to be there, but he is. I believe that God, specifically Jesus, shows up possibly many times during our ordinary day and would exist in our conscious mind if we were to only look for him. Sure, it’s a mindset, and sometimes you have to choose to believe that you see Jesus in circumstances. But whether he is really there, or you’re just seeing things through eyes of hope, either way, it’s a better way to live.
I think my job as a Redemptive Prophet, is to help people see God. To help them realize the truth of their situation and give them tools that they can use to find him. The first and basic tool to find God is to search for him every day. Kind of obvious when I think about it. He told me to do that in the bible, “Seek first his kingdom…” “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” ~Revelation 3:20. Yet, so many times I’ve just not looked for Jesus to show up in my life. That doesn’t mean he isn’t here, just that I rarely hear him knocking. I don’t often hear the knocking, and I don’t often even hear his voice as he’s calling out my name! On those rare occasions that I hear him, and am not afraid to open the door, I let Jesus into my life for a quick chat then usher him out again or just leave him there in the entryway as I scoot out to my next appointment. There never seems to be any lingering. I haven’t realized that I could invite Jesus in, cancel my schedule for the rest of the day, and just be with him. (Or even invite him along to my other appointments!) But God always goes one step further. The Good News is, we don’t have to sit and wait for him to knock. We can go out and search for him every day and I believe we can find him… We can find Easter eggs that he’s hidden for us in the tall grass and many times simply hidden in plain sight.
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