God is Everywhere

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."-Colossians 1:17

In a busy world filled with so much to do, we can find ourselves reaching for our own solutions, our own answers, our own plans. As the world slows down, as we turn the focus back away from ourselves and back onto the Lord, we joyfully remember that God is everywhere and "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:17).

Back before people were asked to stay at home, before very few had placed a single thought on COVID-19, before toilet paper had become a luxury item in the United States, before store shelves became relatively baren, before the shut down of schools and parks, we found other things to plan around and so, so, so many things to do. We must have been really lazy if we ever found life boring before.

Before all of this, I absolutely hated going to the grocery store! It was an activity I took part in on almost a daily basis and was one I felt was wasting time I could be spending elsewhere. Between shopping for school related items and our normal household items, the store was the last place I wanted to go. 

Now, now, I'll be jumping down the aisles singing songs of praise upon my next "normal" visit to the grocery store. We long for people, physical connections. What I wouldn't give to make someone's day and to talk to them at the grocery store, to linger, to find out more about them, to discover why God placed them in my life that day. Before I had made going to the grocery store a task, this used to be a daily thought. How easy it is to forget a blessing even when it's right in front of us, because our Father is so, so good to us.

There are so many things that will no longer be looked at as tasks, but as opportunities. God's giving me that opportunity again. He has taught us to slow down, to love eachother well, even with a simple hello and a small conversation. He has, for really such a small period of time, taken what He so graciously gifted to us on a daily basis and and is reminding us of all of those gifts.

He is reminding us that even as we get lost in all of the good we feel we are doing for Him, through ministry work or through witnessing to those around us or through wherever He has us, He wants us to grow together, to be the whole Body He created us to be. Stop passing eachother by, stop taking so much for granted and lean in and grow relationally with one another and the Lord. Don't be so busy we can't do that or don't want to do that.

What a wonderful Father we have, leading the way. What has He been reminding you of? What has He been teaching you?