Good morning…

I crack up at God’s timing and God’s surround sound in our everyday lives. A few days back, my post was entitled “‘Practicing’ God’s perspective,” encouraging us to see our real selves, every person we meet, and the vibrant creation around us through the compassionate eyes of God. I crafted the post and sent it out. Then I went back to find Henri Nouwen’s daily meditation in my email. His message on 3.31.16, coming into my email just as I was sending out my post, was entitled “Traveling with the Eyes of God.”

Listen to the wise words of Nouwen: “Traveling – seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people – is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, “How was your trip?” we might be less eager to go. Traveling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories. This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people … and be happy to return home.”

Blending these two morning messages, what essential truth is God trying to teach us right now?

Each day we are sent on a trip by our loving God, to new sights and new sounds, to new possibilities and new people (remember, even the people we have seen a million times before are being made new by God each day). Our sleepwalking human eyes can slip into labeling daily life “ho-hum,” “same old, same ole,” “same thing, different day.” Or we can pray, “LORD, teach me to see each person, each part of nature, each fresh opportunity with Your eyes of love, noticing evidence of Your growth everywhere I turn today.” When we return home to our cozy couch, we share stories of all we have seen and heard, touched and felt with the sustaining Creator who nods excitedly, “It is just like I told you, I am making everything new!” (Revelations 21:5).

Now I will tell you new things,
secrets you have not yet heard.
They are brand new, not things from the past.
So you cannot say, “We knew that all the time!” Isaiah 48:6b-7 (NLT),

Sue