Unexpected

Walking along the water, zooming in on the bird above who is hanging out on the post, trying to hold my hand steady to capture this photo, and it is only when I get home that I notice the other bird soaring across the sky - totally photo bombing my picture!

Life is like that.

The unexpected and the unseen are right there before us unnoticed until moments/days/weeks later.

The two (unexpected and unseen) work in concert together...sometimes clouding our vision and clogging our hearing.

The unexpected can be a wonderful serendipitous stirring of the sacred - like a friend we hadn't seen in a while showing up on our door step.  I think of this when Mary goes to visit here relative Elizabeth (click here to read this great story).  I don't think Mary sent a text/tweet/snapchat telling Elizabeth she was on her way, probably didn't send a telegram - again not invented yet - nor a letter.  Mary leaves behind her home - whether it was out of fear or flight - some kind of survival instinct sent her legs scurrying to a place of safety.

The unexpected can also be un-welcomed intrusion into our lives.  I think of a doctor's appointment where a diagnosis echoes off the sterile white walls.  I think of a marriage where words have slowly caused brokenness, sharp shards of hurt and a thousand paper cuts, until someone utters the word, "divorce".

The unexpected can be the mundane that we turn into a mountain.  Rain when we wanted to go for a walk or a phone call when we are walking out the door that turns out to be someone trying to sell us siding for our house.  Seriously?!?

There is also the unseen - people and places and holy moments that we miss because of the busy blur of life.  This could be the name of the person checking us at the grocery store or the beauty of a butterfly sweeping past us or just the kind word we don't really hear because we need to get to somewhere else.

Life is a combination of the unexpected and unseen.

Sometimes this is the advantage of putting/placing a frame around a single moment.  Not that the moment is the be all and end all ~ although each moment is so alive with the sacred that there is much to take in, we will never be able to see every beautiful pixel detail.  When we pause for a moment to let the scene of our life soak it, let the moment sink and settle, open us to the fullness it holds can sometimes hold more than a trace of God's grace for us.

I pray this week, you might find God's fingerprints upon each day and upon every hour in amazing and abundant ways.

Grace and peace ~~