“God
disguised
as a myriad things…”
Maybe even as a butterfly?
Once a few years ago when the boys were really small, we took them to an exhibit with butterflies in the local mall.
We were guided, a few people at a time, into a butterfly house perched on the ground floor right between Dillards and the food court. It was a bit surreal.
They gave us a little straw with sticky stuff at the end and told us to be quiet and still and a butterfly would land on the stick.
I almost laughed at the need to tell toddlers to be quiet and still while butterflies were swimming around their heads!
Still, my husband managed to get a butterfly to land on his stick and quietly lent down to show the boys. For just a moment, they were still encountering their first butterfly up close and personal.
There it was, a butterfly, perched on the edge of a straw flapping its wings gently despite the roving hands of three little boys eager to grab those wings and hold fast…
…an unexpected moment of God in our midst.
Now just imagine something for a minute.
What if the moment that the butterfly kissed the straw was actually God tagging us to say “you’re it!” like the poet Hafiz writes?
What if all the time, in gentle and not so gentle ways, God is reaching out to tag us and say “You’re it!” and “You are the only one that can do this!” and “Believe in yourself!”
Why is it so hard for me to believe that God does this?
Why is it so hard sometimes to believe that God wants to tag me for something… that God has a plan if I only slow down and be quiet and still enough to let the plan land gently on the inner recesses of my heart?
Maybe it doesn’t matter if I believe it yet… God is still tagging me. As the poet continues:
“Now
It does not matter
What you believe or feel
For something wonderful,
Major league wonderful
Is someday
Going to
Happen.”
May we rest in that glimmer of hope today.
