One warm summer evening not too long ago, I lay in my grass with X. beside me looking up at the sky. He had decided {without provocation} that he would lay down, look up and enjoy. I decided to join him and while doing so discovered how much you notice when you choose to look up. The earth feels different somehow. A realization of just how small you really are starts to form. Things are seen in a different light, you begin to notice things.
Our world today is not one which encourages laying in the grass. We have too many distractions. Technology at our fingertips means there’s work to be done at all times. We feel big and important. We believe that we are the people who can do, who must do. We are moving, advancing, progressing. Our society is too busy to see, too busy to notice.
As I’ve been reading through the Gospels I’ve seen just how much Jesus noticed. He saw people for who they were. He taught them truth and when they misunderstood taught truth again. He cared for those in the margins, for those who were not noticed by others. Jesus saw all people and I know in my heart that I haven’t seen enough. His words are jarring. It can be uncomfortable to read as he leaves those who are faithful and seeks out the lost. I am one of the faithful. I am one of the people he would have left behind. I wonder if I would have had the courage to follow him.
I’ve discovered that God is often found in the unnoticed. God exists in the margins of society. With a nudge and a push God points us in the direction of his choosing, so often it is a place we don’t wish to go. The question is will we notice, will we see?
As I lay there with my toes sunk deep in damp grass something incredible happened. While gazing at the cloudless blue sea before me something came into my field of vision. A bird swept overhead and began a sky dance for me. Had I not been lying there I would never have seen it, I would never have known the beauty of that moment.
I wonder how much I have missed in my life during the times I’ve been ‘too busy’.
I wonder what I would have seen if I had just stopped and noticed for a while.