Positioned to Notice

Position yourself to be where your feet are.

Position yourself to keep your eyes wide open. 

Position yourself to notice Him. In everything.

Watch and see how your heart will grow closer to His.

I have a wild fascination with the little things. My eyes get pulled this way and that way in absolute awe and wonder of what God has orchestrated from the teeniest stuff to the largest. Be it a bold statement or not, I believe that having eyes to see and notice the small things lead to hearts that grow closer and closer to the Savior’s. He is a God that is to be revered, honored, and glorified above all else. When we notice Him in everything our eyes fall upon, we give Him the recognition He deserves. We place credit where credit is due. We keep a Heaven-perspective at all times. We train ourselves to keep Him at the absolute forefront. We start to notice more and more glimmers of His goodness and creation. We fall more in love with Him. 

A quick funny story before I fully dive in: I had a ballet professor in college, and, for the purpose of this story, we will call her Shelly. 

Shelly was a ballet diehard. The woman lived every ounce of her life with the art of ballet on her brain. It was her utmost passion in life– the thing her entire world revolved around. In ballet, we use something called turnout (the external rotation of the head of the femur in the hip socket– you’re welcome for your small anatomy lesson today). Most people would recognize this by how dancers stand with their feet in first position: heels together, toes apart. Well, as turnout is crucial to the art of ballet, Shelly had a million and a half analogies to use while teaching about it. Whether it was how a stripper rips off his buttoned pants or the way a bug splats against a windshield, she would proclaim, “OH! There is the turn out!” We would laugh so hard– partly because the analogy was ridiculous and partly because it was actually helpful. Sherry constantly made wildly comical metaphors as she taught us each day of the week. She never ran out of ways to creatively express any bit of technique or correction. Why in the world am I telling you this?! Here is what it taught me: When you love ballet as much as Shelly, you see ballet in EVERYTHING. So in the same way, when you truly love God, you see Him in EVERYTHING. The miniscule, the average, the seemingly mundane, and the giant. What you look for, you will see. What is on your heart and important to your heart– you will see. 

When you open your eyes and heart to see God in the teeniest of things, you will start to see those teeny things everywhere. It is almost as if they multiply. You will start to notice the million miracles around you at any given moment, for which you will find it impossible to not bring your focus to His. Flowers blooming, leaves changing, water sparkling in the sun, light dancing across clouds and illuminating them with cotton candy colors, Chicago’s golden hour reflecting on dynamically built architecture that some human somewhere ignited their God-given gifts to construct, a perfectly timed word of encouragement from the Holy Spirit, a singular, compassionate look from a friend just when you needed it. He is to be noticed in it all.

Over the course of this year, I have found a deep love for walking and talking to God. Prayer has a way of positioning my heart to notice Him– In everything. I couldn’t tell you how it started, but I’ve become an avid alley walker. What in the world?! Yeah, yeah– it’s weird– I’m aware. I have a deep fascination with walking in the alleys around my apartment. It just so happens that my back alley butts up to a train track. On one side you see the typical alleyway (probably what most of you are envisioning) with the unkempt backsides of apartments, alley garages, and stinky dumpsters, but on the other side is a massive, overgrown, hill that leads to the railroad tracks. Something I would have never noticed before living the city life is that people will make use of every square inch of space they are allotted. While much of the hillside is still freckled with litter and a mixture of thick, overrun weeds of every form you could imagine, other areas have become prime opportunity spots for those living nearby. Neighbors have turned segments of this unclaimed hillside into massive gardens. Flower gardens and gardens bursting with tomatoes, peppers, corn, you name it– it’s growing there. People have chopped stairs out of the rocky dirt, and made pathways winding up the hillside in and around their garden. Benches sit nestled with bird baths and reading nooks that could almost make you forget, just for a moment, that you are, indeed, both in an alley and on a mound of dirt that supports a railway. Flowering trees and every flower you can imagine bloom on these hillsides making something so magical out of such an otherwise ugly, useless location. It’s honestly comical, but when I look at it, I see God– Making beauty out of nothing. 

On my walks, I constantly keep my eyes peeled for the creatures I will find. While it is slim-pickings in the city, I still see God in all of it! The way squirrels nervously twitch their tails while on the hunt for alley-snacks, the metallic sheen of pigeons as they puff up their chest feathers, the teeny birds that sit nestled perfectly within a chain-link fence. The way that geese sit upon rooftops where they look down as if they could be judging this bizarre human being that walks back and forth along the alleyway muttering prayers to a seemingly unseen God. 

In every season, the alley changes. Weeds bring such vibrancy and life to the untouched portions of the hillside. Unabated weeds grow sky high by the end of summer, and some burst forth with the cutest dotting of colorful flowers. I frequently find myself making mini flower bouquets with the many I find on my alley walks. How often do these flowers go unnoticed because alleyways are thought to be forgotten, dirty, ugly places? They are bright spots. They are hints of beauty and grace in discarded places. 

You might think by now– wow, Sarah– I get it– you love looking for Him in the teeny things, but why should I? I remember a lesson I taught my KIDS Church kiddos not too long ago around Matthew 5:13-16–  being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. I think the brightest glimmers of light and the most flavorful moments of saltiness in our lives reside in the super small things (I mean think about how one miniscule grain of salt can bring tons of flavor). The smile to a stranger that seems to be having a rough day. The small text of encouragement or kindness to a friend. The instinctual selflessness of reaching to open a door for someone. The simple stuff– the light that can be instilled in the seemingly mundane moments of everyday life. There is joy to be seen in every nook and cranny if only you look for it. In my lesson on Matthew 5, I remember showing my kids a picture of someone on the Dead Sea and how it makes them float because of all the salt. I think seeing Jesus in the small stuff in our life truly keeps us afloat like that. It helps us not sink into the depths of the madness and hardship of our world. It keeps us up near the top– able to breathe easier because we can see Who is in control– Who we can put our trust in– Who we can catch joy and peace from at any given moment. No, you’re not ignoring the hardship of the world, you are just keeping a Kingdom-perspective on it. We get to literally rise above what could make us feel like we are drowning, and we DON’T EVEN HAVE TO TREAD WATER while doing so. Seeing His light and salt in the everyday ordinary moments will keep us afloat. The more you SEE it and experience it, the more you’ll want to BE it and bring it.

If you practice seeing Him in all the little things around you, it will naturally translate to seeing the glimpses of Him IN THE PEOPLE around you. Suddenly, you will not be able to get through a conversation without seeing a million things pop up in any given individual that remind you of your Creator– whether they know Him or not! I didn’t used to enjoy meeting with people, but now sitting across from others and listening to them talk about their life is one of my favorite things. I see so much of God in the people I get to pour my time out alongside. Seeing Him in others keeps me that much more wildly excited about what He is doing. Seeing hints and inklings of His goodness in everyone I meet keeps me on the edge of my seat. I see His heart right away in people. Some of the people near and dear to my heart don’t know Him, but when we speak, I see His heart in them– a heart that begs to fall back in line with the One who first crafted it. Looking for Him and seeing Him in everyone will open up the spaces and places in your heart that trump the selfishness of the flesh. Positioning to find Him in everyone postures your heart to look more like His– more like the Shepphard crazy about going after the one lost sheep. I’m telling you– everything changes when you open your eyes to the little things– when you open your eyes to see Him.

I mean– even just spend 10 minutes with a child and see the way they view the world! Their fascination is inspiring. The smallest of things warrant an assertively pointed finger and outstretched arm begging for your eyes to meet what their eyes just fell upon. They get it. Children get it. Life has not yet caused them to lose the awe and wonder of creation. It’s funny, too, how kids want their beloved parents to experience wonder with them– “Dad, look!!” or “Mom, look!!” When we position ourselves to see and look with wide eyes around us, we are positioning ourselves to include our Father in on the experience. He wants to live life with us– alongside us. He wants to be a part of every little thing. Don’t you think He wants you to be in awe of the goodness He has for you in the life He has plopped you smack down in the middle of? I think it’s one of the many reasons, Jesus says, ‘“. . . Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”’ (Matthew 18:3 NIV) At the same time we take on the form of a child with humility, we also get to take on the magic and curiosity that lies behind a child’s eyes as they take in all the Father has for them.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you stay amazed. Staying amazed is what helps us never lose our zest and zeal for what He is doing! It keeps our spiritual fervor pumping because our hearts beat faster as we anticipate our eyes falling upon God at any given moment. Staying amazed is what helps fan the flame. Staying amazed will build Kingdom more sweetly and authentically than lukewarm wonder ever good. Ask Jesus to help you see Him in everything, and I promise you will.