Searching For Real

My kids lose things all the time.

Especially my three-year-old girl. It seems like I spend half my day looking for her blankie and/or sippy cup.

And usually I find it sitting out in plain sight.

Even the older kids are always losing stuff.

Here's an example:
Me: Okay! It's time to go! Everyone get in the car.
Kid: (wailing) I can't find my shoes!
Me: Where did you leave them?
Kid: I don't know!
Me: Did you look in your room?
Kid: Yes! they're not there!
Me: Did you look in the shoe-chest?
Kid: Yes! I looked EVERYWHERE, Mom! I can't find my shoes!
Me: (sighing) Okay I'll come look.
(The shoes are sitting in the middle of the living room.)
Me: They're RIGHT THERE!!!
Kid: Oh. I didn't see them.

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person in this household capable of finding anything.

Truthfully though, I think the problem is that the kids spend more time whining about the lost thing than they do looking for it.

They'll just give a cursory glance around the room and call it searching. I'm like, HEY! You've got to actually LOOK for the thing! Check under the couch! Pick up that pillow and look under it! This isn't rocket science, folks!

However, it seems that sometimes this is how we search for God. We run a casual eye over the surface of life and say, "Where is He?"

Jeremiah 29:12-13a says:
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD.

God wants us to seek Him, not just halfheartedly, but with all of our heart.

And when we do, we WILL find Him.

A (Mom's) Hymn of Faith

Though the fig tree may not blossom,

Nor fruit be on the vines;

Though the labor of the olive may fail,

And the fields yield no food;

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold ,

And there be no herd in the stalls—

Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,

I will joy in the God of my salvation. 

Habbakuk 3:17-18

"Blossoming Orchard" by Van Gogh

http://www.canvaz.com



I read these verses, entitled "A Hymn of Faith," this morning and thought what a lovely picture of trust in God it painted.

Even when everything is going wrong, or seems to be, we must still rejoice in the Lord.

But since the farm metaphors don't really resonate with me, I thought I'd write my own "Hymn of Faith," from a mom's perspective:

Though my house may never be clean,

And my laundry basket never be empty,

Nor can I banish that strange smell from the sofa cushions;

Though there may be no money in my wallet,

And no milk in my fridge,

And payday is not until next week;

Though my car's engine may make a scary noise,

And the kids be screaming in the backseat,

And one of them just threw up--

Yet I WILL give thanks to God,

And I will rejoice in His blessings.