Sometimes in the Splendid, Sometimes in the Ordinary

On an ordinary run on an ordinary day, not thinking about anything spectacular, God quite often surprises me.  Alongside my path last week, suddenly around a bend, a beautiful deer stood on the other side of the pavement, peacefully watching me with her huge eyes, not ready to bolt, but just sharing the quiet beauty of the woods and as if she were whispering, "Oh hey, there you are."

Yesterday I ran my usual hill loop, deep in thought.  I came back down the slope to my starting point where the path diverges. There, on a branch in the thicket, a barred owl stood faithfully as a sentinel watching over my path and waiting for me.  I didn't see him on my way up.  But that stately creature was there all along, on guard and silently present.

Sometimes those little momentary glimpses make me feel like God is winking His eye, saying, "I'm right here, even when you don't see Me."  And He uses His elaborate creation to assure me of His Presence.  Those moments shouldn't surprise me at all.  But God always uses them to make me chuckle.

Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I took our daughter's dog for a long walk, while she navigated a maze of on-line business meetings.  We entered the sanctuary of a local wildlife area nearby, knowing that two eagles had nested there by a small lake, a very rare occurrence in this part of the country.  We hoped to catch a glimpse.

As we made our way across the small dam, we scanned the opposite shoreline. Almost right away, we spotted one of the eagles across the lake, perched on the branch of an old sycamore tree, overlooking its newly acquired kingdom.  Its black body and white hood stood out, even that far away.  We could see the beginnings of this pair's enormous nest with lakefront views in yet another large tree.  But the other eagle was nowhere in sight, perhaps just hunkered down in the nest. 

And I was reminded by how the sight of eagles stirs up courage in the hearts of those who need it most:  "but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles,  they shall run and not be weary,  they shall walk and not faint."  Isaiah 40. 31

Further along the path, we spotted a group of people gawking --looking up and pointing their phones skyward like tourists.  At first, all we could see were black lace branches against the waning light of the winter sky.  And then, quite suddenly, we became aware of an extravagant beauty.  Whoa! The other eagle was almost right above our heads.  He was not impervious to our presence.  He knew exactly where we were and what we were doing.  He was not threatened in the least, but only perhaps slightly amused.

 

He was not just huge, but magnificent, and much bigger than we imagined.

God gave us far more than we expected on this little afternoon hike.  We stood there mesmerized, our eyes wide open, and our hearts stirred by the appearance of this stately bird. 

"Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow;  you catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall."  (Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek)

Our cup runneth over.

What does it take for God to get our attention?   Sometimes we are surprised by the splendid and other times astonished in the ordinary.   Am I aware of God's Presence, even when I can't see what is pointblank in front of me?  Even when I am not quite sure what I am looking at?   Am I so distracted that I walk right past His wonders, right by my side?  Or right above my head?

As we started walking away, a woman meandered by.  "What are you looking at?" she casually asked.

"A bald eagle, right there."  I pointed.  "Really?"  She tilted her head upward, her skeptical eyes searching through the branches, unaware how close he actually was..

"Oh, wow!"  Sometimes we are reduced to the vocabulary of a toddler.  

The sighting of the eagles was splendid, but the ordinary is just as engraved by unexpected and inexplicable awe.  We may look for God in remarkable events.  But we miss His wonders of the world seamlessly woven in our everydays.

 

And he said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD."

And behold, the LORD passed by, 

and a great and strong wind tore the mountains

and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD,

   but the LORD was not in the wind.

And after the wind an earthquake,

   but the LORD was not in the earthquake.

And after the earthquake a fire, 

   but the LORD was not in the fire.

And after the fire

       the sound of a still small voice...

                  1 Kings 19. 11-12

 

May we be astonished 

     by God's magnificent Presence

     even in the ordinary.

Even today.

"Oh hey, there You are."