what josh is teaching me about God #6

I arrived home from the U.S. yesterday, and it was so great to see Ali, Josh and Rachel again. I missed them a lot while I was away, and Josh didn't cope real well the last few days.

As is our custom at nights, last night I lay down with Josh to talk about his day, and (not surprisingly) he didn't want me to leave. Ali was at music rehearsal for Sunday morning, so I said to Josh I'd stay a bit longer if we could just lie still and not talk (he really needed to go to sleep). That moment was one of the richest of my life. he snuggled into me, and just lay there (something pretty rare for Josh!), letting me stroke his hair... bliss.

Then it hit me - maybe that's how God sees us when we've been away for a time. He doesn't want us to necessarily talk and tell him everything, grovel or enter with fear, but just says "let's lie here for a while - it's great to have you home".

what's really important?

I've had the pleasure of spending the last few days in Kansas City and Chicago with my very good friend, Chris Folmsbee. Today, a snowstorm came through Chicago, something I've not seen before. It was exciting and fun (I even got to shovel snow for the first time...)

What has amazed me, though, is how things can just shut down. We saw news reports about 400 flights being canceled at O'Hare, the trains stopping, the roads coming to a near standstill - and it wasn't even a bad storm! Apparently it gets a lot worse at times, and things can shut down pretty much altogether.

It's so easy for us to expect things to happen - from our favourite food being available at the supermarket to our sporting team to play a certain way, from planes being available when they're supposed to be, to people driving the way we expect them to. And when they don't... isn't that a great opportunity to realise that maybe something we thought was vital actually wasn't, and in that disconnect, we allow our minds to repent, and see things from a totally different point of view.