What is THAT under the couch? And other such clues

There was not a blogposting yesterday, simply because there were only twenty-four hours in the day.  I did not read, I did not write, and the only running I have done in the past week has been running after grandkids and running out of time.

About 10 a.m. yesterday, my husband Bill called to ask how I was.  At that moment in time, I had put the two-year-old down for a nap,  I had the three-year-old in the bathtub since she had thrown up all night, the four-month-old in my arms had just loaded up his diaper, and the third load of wash was ready for the dryer.  "Can I help you with anything?" I asked.   He just chuckled.

Everyone left this morning -- one family by car, and the other with a 4 a.m. run to the airport.  The house is silent except for a humming from the laundry room.  But there are many clues to prove that the grandkids were here.  I spotted what I thought was a matchbox car under the couch.  As I knelt down to retrieve the toy, it turned out to be part of Howie's banana from yesterday's breakfast.  Ewww!

I also discovered a very ripe diaper in the bathroom wastebasket (that would be baby Adrian), a very neat stack of picture books in one of the bedrooms (that would be Maggie), and an old red Barbie car occupied by two Ken dolls (I can still hear Howie saying, "No girls allowed!")

On a daily basis, I will be uncovering evidence from their visit, little items hidden, forgotten, and stored away as only toddlers can do.  I just found the bouncy ball behind the living room chair and out on the screen porch, just one of my shoes.  From the look of things, there is no doubt of their presence this week.

God also provides proof of His presence in the vastness of the universe and in the tiniest details of our lives.  In the classic book The Reason for God:  Belief in an Age of Skepticism, author Timothy Keller challenges each of us not to "prove" God's existence, but to "find the clues to his reality that he has written into the universe, including into us." 

It is not that we are waiting for God to show up, but for us to finally notice the evidence of His Presence embracing us on a daily basis.  He has been here all along, visible, unmistakable, evident and "... made manifest among us..." (1 John 4.9)   


Draw near to Me, hear this:
     from the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
     from the time it came to be
                            I have been there.

                          Isaiah 48.16