Across the Pastor’s Desk by Jennifer Gonsalves

 

Where have you seen God today? At first this may seem like an odd question if you have never heard it before. Because as Christians, while we believe that God is always present in our lives, we don’t often think about the specific moments where we see or feel God in the world around us.  And so we don’t always look and instead get caught up in work and family and the ordinary stuff of life.

Now for those of us who’ve grown up going to church, we are used to seeing and feeling God while attending worship or singing hymns or reading the Bible.  We learn from an early age that the church is God’s house, which is good, but sometimes we also get the idea church is the only place where we can see God working, moving and active in the world today. It can be so easy to see God on Sunday, but what about the rest of the week? Where do you see God when you are at work or home with your kids or running errands around town? Do we see God in the regular, everyday normal moments of our lives? Do we even stop to look? The answer for me, as a pastor, is sometimes I do but many times I too get caught up in the day to day stuff of life and forget to look. 

Yet, even when I’m not looking, God shows up.  God catches my attention and I see God clearly again.  For I often see God when I stop and look at nature and am awed by what I see. I see God when I am encounter kindness from a friend or even a stranger. And I see God in the quiet moments when I am at peace, and I am reminded that this peace is a gift from God. 

So as summer ends and, for many of us, we return to the normal day-to-day stuff of life, my challenge for myself and for you is at least once a day, stop and look around you and ask the question: Where do I see God? And let yourself be surprised at the many ordinary places where God can always be found.

Jennifer Gonsalves is associate pastor at Grace Lutheran Church.