this is where i see You...

"in an airplane
i take the window seat
a thousand feet,
and all i know shrinks in minutes
when the sky is gray i want to believe
that when the sun is hiding it still exists

in an airplane
are kings and common men
at the window side by side,
their view is now the same
some relax and rest their eyes
some sit on the edge
as we all break through the clouds, into the light of day

mountain tops peak through
this is where i see You
i've never seen a clearer blue
this is where i see You

leave behind your busy life
all you have is who you are
space like this is hard to find, so breathe it in
someone will say, 'where are you heading?'
and it might be the first time you ever thought about it

a baby's talking two rows behind me
the sun just set for the second time today
You seem to use the smallest things around me
to get me to this place"

~ "airplane"... bethany dillon

This is where I see You. Yeah... I've had some of those experiences this summer on planes. It always amazes me the ways in which God chooses to show us Himself. I don't want to ever let it stop amazing me. I want to always be in awe of who He is.

Have you ever stopped to think about where you see Him? Like Bethany says in this song, He seems to use the smallest things around us to get us to this place. At lunch today (which happened to be a picnic at church after the service...), Lydia was sitting to my left, and Eli was sitting just across the aisle on my right. They are both three years old, and I've had them both in my MOPS class, as well as in Sunday school, and besides that, I babysit Eli and his siblings. So they both know me pretty well. Anyway, as I was eating, something made me look over to where Lydia was sitting, and she had her hands up to her eyes, making a sort of binoculars with her fingers, and she was looking at me through them. Then a little while later, I looked up at Eli, and he was sneaking glances in my direction. Then he'd wave to me, and I'd wave to him, and we went back and forth for probably a full minute or two, one of us waving, and then the other. Lydia poked me with her snow cone straw, and Eli squinted through his eyes at me... I had such a fun lunch time. :) I love these kids.

Where have you seen God lately? In June, I saw Him every day in the eyes of the Nica children. I saw Him in the beauty of the palm trees and everything tropical. I saw God in the lovely clouds above the garbage dump where thousands of people live, digging for food and things to sell. It was as if He was saying to me that even in the midst of the garbage dump, even in the midst of the homeless people there, He is still God, and there is still beauty. I saw Him there. I saw Him as I watched the ground from the windows of ten different planes this summer, and as I watched the clouds move under and around us. I saw Him in the smile of my friend in May, when we had the opportunity to get together after six years, and again a couple of days ago in talking with him on the phone.

You know, I think sometimes we miss seeing God because we don't expect Him to turn up in certain places. I know I have been so surprised at some of the places where I have seen Him. A garbage dump where people live does not really seem like a very likely place to find God. But when we are listening to Him, when we are walking in step with Him (Galatians 5:25)... we're going to be more in tune with Him and see Him. He so loves to show us Himself, and He so often loves to use some crazy ways to show us and teach us about Him, and about who He really is.

This is where I see You...