I went running the other day without my hanky

This forced me to find other ways to fill the job description vacated by my trusty handkerchief during my 30 minutes of exercise.  This, then, necessitated the prompt laundering of sweatshirt sleeves and shirttails upon my return. And as I disrobed I discovered, in a little used back pocket, my hanky.

Discovering we have something we didn’t know we had happens to us all. Handkerchiefs and car keys, most often - but especially when it comes to God.

I think we all suspect that at every moment of every day, God is trying to say, ‘I’m here!’ God is trying to get our attention. God is trying to show us that we’re not alone, we’ve nothing to worry about, and we do well to spend some time seriously meditating on the possibility of God’s omnipresence in every little thing we say and do.

This realization has changed my life.  I got an urgent call this week while I was in the middle of an important project. As the phone call went on and I was paying more and more attention to the clock in front of me – and the time slipping away from this urgent project – it all at once hit me: God is in all of this.  God is in this phone call. God is in this project. God knew this phone call was coming. God knows if the project will be delayed. The main point of friction here does not appear to be on God’s end of bringing about a perfect plan for the world, but on my abrasion and hesitation to doing anything I had not first written into my daily planner.

In other words, our daily interruptions, delays, and surprises are no surprise to God. God’s other name is ‘surprise.’

This has serious implications on how you and I live out the rest of today.  Will we do so flying off the handle, getting anxious and frustrated because something happened beyond our control? Or will we step back and see how God is working through that interruption and inconvenience?  Can we see how Jesus is present in and through that obstacle to bring us to a deeper realization of God’s care, providence, and desire for us to become more deeply ourselves in God?