Do You See God in the Everyday?

Our flatlander family vacationed in the mountains for the first time this year. My prairie children, at home in the endless grass and fields of our North Dakota farm, were stunned at the height and majesty of the mountains. They exclaimed over the steepness of the trails as we hiked. Mom couldn’t exclaim; she was too busy panting and wheezing. As we crested the summit, we all fell silent. The view from the mountaintop was breathtaking. It felt as if God was there–as if we squinted our eyes just a bit, we may actually see God himself.

As we sat and soaked in our mountaintop experience, it struck me that I can’t do this every day. As close as God seemed on the mountain, I can’t hike up here every day to sense elements of him. There are no mountaintops on the prairie. Am I doomed to a life of sporadic and infrequent God sightings?

I’m not the only one, friends. You may have felt the same way, wherever you live. In 1 John, “My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete it us–perfect love!” (1 John 4:11-12 MSG, emphasis mine)

No one, not Moses or Abraham or David or Paul, has ever seen God. Rather than let that fact defeat us, I believe it should, instead, encourage us to look for God in the things that surround us. “First this: God created the heavens and the earth—all you see, all you don’t see” (Gen. 1:1 MSG). If God created it, we should be able to find him in it. His fingerprints are on all of creation.

When I returned from my vacation, I was met by our adoring farm dog, Sadie. She was wriggling with excitement and joy at our return. In that moment, I saw God as clearly as I had seen him on the mountaintop just days before.

As a farm dog, Sadie is much more than our pet; she is a colaborer on the farm. She puts in more hours than John or I do, and that is a fact. She is farm security all night, every night, barking off coyotes, chasing raccoons and deer out of my garden, sleeping with our ewes and baby lambs. Her defense of her farm kingdom is fierce. I see her devotion to us as my children’s constant companion on their adventures. Whether they are searching for wildflowers, doing pasture chores, or riding horses, I know that Sadie is with them as their protector. In a few short years, my kids will leave our farm nest and venture into the world on their own. I can trust God with my children even more than I trust Sadie with them now.

Sadie comforts the hurting. If we have a sick or injured animal on the farm, Sadie is there. She will tenderly lick them, nuzzle them under the chin, and try to get them to play with her. We have often found her sleeping with the bottle lambs or newborn calves. God’s tender care of us far exceeds that of our farm dog.

I’m well aware that Sadie is just a dog. But she is a dog created by God. In her, I can see elements of God, his fingerprints. Each of us has the opportunity to see God in the small things around us every day. In the intricate beauty of an opening blossom, in the sparkle of a stone, in the smile of a child, all of these reveal God to us.

But only if we are willing to see him.

It’s hard to see God in the everyday. It is far easier to find him in a mountain top experience, because our eyes are opened to that amazing vista. What can open our eyes so we see God in the everyday?

Gratitude.

Seeing everything as a gift, as a miracle, will open our eyes to see the elements of God himself. Each day, we can ask God to open our eyes, to show us more of himself. And through the attitude of a grateful heart, we can know God more fully.

Psalm 95, written as an invitation to worship God, reminds us that through his creation, he reveals himself to us: “In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns, in the other hand grasps the high mountains. He made Ocean—he owns it! His hands sculpted Earth! So come, let us worship: bow before him, on your knees before God, who made us! Oh yes, he’s our God, and we’re the people he pastures, the flock he feeds” (Ps. 95:4-7, MSG).

With grateful hearts, we cannot help but see God in everything he created. Rather than hiking to the top of a mountain, take a walk in your neighborhood and see what the Lord has done for you. See who God is right there in your place.

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Yuriy Bogdanov, used with permission