Light of Letters: Seeing God in Everything

I read this poem in my devotions recently (while sitting on the couch in damp workout clothes, nursing Esther, and pausing to explain a math problem to Micah . . .)

“SEE GOD IN ALL THINGS, great and small,

And give him praise what’er befall,

In life or death, in pain or woe,

See God and overcome your foe . . .

Life will, indeed, a blessing bring,

If we SEE GOD IN EVERYTHING.”

A.E. Finn

As I read this poem, I couldn’t help but wonder: why don’t I see God in everything?

The heart-honest truth is this: it’s hard to SEE GOD in the day-to-day “pain and woe” of midnight feedings, bad attitudes, sibling spats, failed homeschool days and hurtful words spoken in stressed-out-anger.

During weary mothering moments, I’ve preached to myself: I don’t see God in everything because I’m blinded by selfishness!

But even after preaching “don’t be selfish, don’t be selfish . . . ” through out the day, I still fall into bed at night body-weary and soul-weary.

Then a couple evenings ago, while our kiddos ran around the back yard chasing bouncy baby crickets, I chatted with my neighbor, Jana. As we chatted, I sat in a green lawn chair patting Esther’s back. Watching my hand pat-pat-patting, Jana said, “I think mothering is the most unselfish thing you could ever do. I mean—you give up sleep, food, money, hanging out with friends, and all to raise a kid.”

I replied: “Yes, good mothering requires selflessness, but I’ve found mothering shows me over and over again how selfish I really am—I don’t like giving up sleep, time, or brain cells!”

But as Jana and I watched our kiddos run red-faced through the grass, as we listened to high-pitched-squeals of delight when they snagged a kicking insect leg, when they ran with wriggling insects between fingers to where we sat on lawn chairs and stuck kicking bugs under our noses saying: “Look! A cricket!” a verse popped into my mind: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11b).

My heart-eyes opened as I realized: I’m trying to see God by focusing on Self! All day long I preach “don’t be selfish” and I miss the God-Beauty around me because I’m still the focus!

My focus must be outward and upward rather than inward!

My children—in spite of bad attitudes, screaming fits, and messes—reflect God’s beauty! They reflect his beauty as they catch insects (and let them loose all over my living room floor!), as they fight over who gets to feed baby Esther her bottle, as they learn a new concept in school, as they chase each other round the playground shooting each other with “super-hero” lasers.

Beauty: Three Boys Feeding Baby Esther

And there’s soul-purifying beauty in midnight feedings and newborn fussiness because there’s Beauty in focusing on the needs of my little girl rather than whining about my lack of sleep or inability to complete my tasks.

So, to change my focus from Self to God, I must bend my knees and pray this:

“One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.” (Psalm 27:4).

God is Beauty and his temple is everywhere!

Lord, grant me the eyes to see Beauty—to see You—in everything, especially the hard things.