God This Week

I hear a lot of stories about “God Moments” or “Divine Appointments” and a part of me laughs. Isn’t our whole life supposed to belong to Him? Isn’t every moment dedicated to our Lord. Washing the dishes, wiping the baby’s bottom, packing lunches with the kids at 6:30am, driving to church when you’re late and grumpy, standing in line, talking to the cop who just gave you a ticket, watching the last Monster High doll get snatched up by another mom. All these should be “God Moments”.

But I think what people mean when they say “I had a Divine Appointment today” is that they had one of those magical moments where they actually listened. They acted like Jesus and it went well. They noticed someone who was hurting and helped. They remembered that we are not our own, we were bought with a price.

But what about those moments where you miss it?

What about the days when you can see the chance to love and it is zipping away in the rear view mirror.

That is what God showed me this week. A missed chance. And it hurts to see it trailing away behind me as life moves on.

Sweet Boy#3 got on the bus, even though I left a note saying that I was picking him up. I rushed up the bus stairs, hoping to find him. Everything was chaos, pretty typical for a school bus that is about to drive away. And I was shouting out my boy’s name and no one was replying and I was wondering where the heck to look for him if he didn’t pop out of one of the green vinyl seats. A little boy stumbled to the front of the bus with tear tracks on his cheeks. “I got hurt,” he shouted to the bus driver as I shouted down the isle for my little boy. “Well, sit down and you will feel better,” the bus driver said. I mean, what more could he do, the man had to drive and the busses in front of him were pulling out. My first impulse was to pull the little boy into my arms, but I stopped myself. What was I thinking? His mother would think I was some creepy person and hunt me down. But what to do? Then my little boy finally noticed me and the crying child had already slumped back down the isle and sat down.

The scene keeps playing over and over in my mind. I could have said “I’m so sorry, are you OK?” I could have walked him to his seat while I looked for my boy. I could have at least put my hand on his shoulder and told him it would be alright. I could have given him more than the awkward smile that was all I managed to come up with on the fly.

And so this week I was reminded of something.

Life is a Divine Appointment. God has breathed life into this strange collection of skin and bone and blood that is my body. God has given me today. This moment to love those I come across. A moment in time to be like Him. Every moment is precious. But I must seize them, because they are gone in an instant. I have failed this week, but I have also succeeded. I have given out hugs, I have forgiven, I have cleaned things and written things and helped kids at our public school with their reading. But it is that failure that sticks with me and reminds me how precious each moment is, that I dare not squander them.

Titus 2:13-14–“while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”