“And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.” (Luke 24:31 ESV)

Recently I sat in church next to my eldest daughter, Hannah, and her daughter Anastasia, who is just at the stage of eating with her hands, whilst she sat on her mother’s knee.  I thought I am glad my time has passed for me to get involved with those sticky hands. It is a bête noire for me.

Hannah was quite oblivious to the mess her daughter’s hands were making, all covered in food bits and saliva.  So much so that she in turn became smothered in sticky too because Anastasia’s focus was on eating but keeping her quite happy on the knee (much like her mum was at her age!)  Then with no fuss Hannah cleaned them both up with hygienic wipes.

I felt God was trying to reach me through this little vignette in the middle of the service so I stored it up to process later.

Later, another daughter of mine – I shall spare her blushes – rang me to say that she had mislaid the spare key for the front door, having used it previously to enter.  Now, not having her key, or the one she should have replaced earlier, she had effectively locked herself out!  Fortunately as I was out, Caroline, was about to return home in a few minutes to let her in.  Sadly she was unable to remember where she had casually put the spare key in her haste to get in. 

Facing up to the need to replace the door keys if the spare key could not be found the next day I went through all of the house’s surfaces but to no avail. Then I escalated to DEFCON 4, going through the child’s jeans and jacket pockets to find out if the key was in a pocket!  

Having failed thus far, I stood and I prayed to ask Jesus to be involved with my predicament to help me clean up the mess, to find the wayward key!  The next place I checked was the pocket of her denim jacket which was hiding behind the dressing gown and hoodie I had checked, and there was the key!

I was so thankful not to have to go through all the trouble of replacing the lock and the keys.  It was then that I remembered the episode above from church with my daughter and grandchild!  God cares about the messiness of life we get drawn into and He waits, unasked, for us to call out.

It is a reminder God is waiting as I – we – cast about until I – we – stop and recognise I need – we all need – His wisdom and help. LORD, open our eyes to see You in the everyday.

PRAYER: LORD, we thank You when we call out You clean up as You hold us close to Your heart, getting covered in our mess because you care for us as we get sticky exploring the world about us, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Roderick Marshall