GOD NOTICINGS
During a morning walk around my neighborhood in Pasadena, I noticed spring-infused, fluorescent-green grasses sprouting in front of a home that had burned to the ground during the recent devastating firestorm. Spring arrived without fail after the harsh, miserable, fire-brimming winter. The grass was so stunningly green that it caught my attention, prompting me to stop and look, in contrast to the house that was no longer there. Other flowers were blooming, effortlessly taking cues from the new spring. Nature does what nature is, just as God does who God is. Nature does not betray the natural law and judges nothing. The way I experienced LA spring this morning felt like grace and hope, that “all will be well.”
The “Immanuel” God promised us that the triune God would be with us until the end of the age. Without this promise of God's illimitable grace, I do not know how we can live. God’s presence is immanent, pervading all conceivable and inconceivable aspects of our lives, revealing God-self to all who would seek. God makes God-self known, always. God wants to be found. To put it more wholistically, when we find God, it is because God found us first, which is grace at work. God is doing all the heavy lifting. God making God-self known being the incontrovertible truth; the times that we do not feel God’s presence are not because God is not present, but because we are not aware of God’s presence. (At the same time, God’s immanence does not invalidate God’s transcendence, God as mystery, really Mystery of all mysteries, beyond reason and knowing. To be sure, God is both knowable and unknowable, never one or the other.)
Whenever and wherever we hosted people for a few days, we would carve out some time every night for a “God Hunt” exercise. While mostly adults, we have had children who were ten years old and even younger. The “God Hunt” exercise is basically an exercise about “God noticings.” How, when, and where did we notice God’s presence in our lives throughout the day? While our adult children visited us in Malaysia, this nightly practice became one of my best memories. At other times, I always looked forward and was curious about what younger children would share, as they are more grounded in more mundane, ordinary, and present aspects of life. Their unfiltered concept of God, which is what they instinctively experience, cuts through what is often the unnecessarily complex and bloated view of God to a simple, child-like, and immanent God. They become my teachers to notice God I would have missed.
I see God in random strangers through their smiles, acts of kindness to others, and otherness, how my children love and care for their dogs, a mechanic who would drive more than an hour to my house to try to resurrect my old car, and the friends who are concerned for my well-being. I can see and hear God through spring green grasses, a falling leaf, graceful orange California poppies on the neglected side of the road, and a fluttering butterfly circling me. The chaos and the craziness of the current world (or any other time for that matter) do not and cannot negate but elevate more of God’s loving presence in everyday life. God speaks and lets God’s presence be known through both consolation and desolation times.
Any way I can become more sensitized to notice God in my everyday life, which is filled with more ordinaries than extraordinaries, would enhance my ongoing journey with God. This discernment helps me make decisions in real-time, reflecting God’s presence and action in my life. This sensitized process would foster my loving willingness to consent to what God is unfolding for me. I would like to believe that “love to consent” is always better than “obey to consent.” The love is based on tangible experiences of God’s presence, which always come to me as grace, loving-kindness, and mercy. The love of God compels me to love God more, leading me to consent to what God may have in store for my unique path in life. I can agree with what Apostle John wrote, “We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)