Gospel Footprints and Unseen Moments

Last week was one of the busiest, overwhelming weeks in a long time.  I’m still trying to figure out the best schedule/order for homeschooling four kiddos on three grade levels, plus the addition of a precocious two year old who intervenes every 3 minutes.  We hosted a five-day Bible Club for the kids in our neighborhood, and we continued our free-coffee Friday outreach.  Saturday we had Bible Study, and Sunday was a full day at church.  Somewhere in there I need to fit piano lessons, Patch the Pirate Club devotions, art class, and monthly grocery shopping trip.  Not to mention that for the last nearly ten years the biggest place we have lived is 1,000 square feet…now we own a house with twice that plus a basement, porch, garage, and back yard.  (Huge blessing…huge responsibility!)

We really did have a good week in Bible Club, but there was a lot to prepare and do for each day.  On Saturday I was sweeping and mopping the floors in preparation for Bible Study, and I was reflecting on the week.  I thought about 13 different kids, whose footprints I was now removing, that came and heard the Gospel (plus my own four kiddos in attendance).  I was thinking of Gospel songs they learned that would be hummed through the day while they tried to remember all the words and tunes.  I thought of Scripture verses hidden in their hearts in not quite perfect King James English, but which the Holy Spirit can use to draw their hearts out to God.

And even though there was a lot of work involved – before, during, and now after, as I found candy wrappers under the couch and ants on the forgotten chips on the patio – it was a blessing to be a part of something that God is doing here. 

Sometimes {too often} I grumble at my housework.  Because there is a lot of it, and it’s never ending.  But I’m looking back at just shy of three months in this new home, and then considering how many people have passed through our doors and heard the Gospel or been encouraged in the Word of God.  I’m thinking of new neighbors who were an answer to prayer – they have kids!!! – and a family up the street who have the sweetest, friendliest girls.  I’m thinking of a girl at Bible Club today who gave me a hug and said, “Thank you for letting us come learn about God’s Word, and for giving my mom free coffee.”  Then it’s worth the housework.

It’s a bunch of unseen moments.  Even my kids don’t see it most of the time.  It’s a little sweeping here, and a load of laundry there.  It can even be grading that dreaded stack of homeschool papers and filing them away into portfolios.  But they are moments when I can wonder at what God is doing around me and through me. 

I’m reading a book called Unseen by Sara Hagerty.  Each chapter I crack is just what I am needing.  It’s been a few weeks since I last got to read it, but the half chapter I squeezed in tonight was balm for my soul.  I was reminded that I need to train my eyes to see God in the middle minutes, and that “when we cut ourselves off from attending to God in the quiet and the small, we’re cutting ourselves off from soul food.”  And this seemed the perfect description of the crazy that I have been feeling over the last handful of days.  “Cacophony is the soundtrack for my days.  Even the nondescript parts of my day make noise.  There is the constant buzz from the dryer producing piles of laundry that needs to be folded, the squeals and hollers of giddy children, and even the background hum of ocean waves [in my case it’s Nolan’s personal fan] from the white-noise machine in the upstairs bedroom—we often forget to turn it off… Quiet doesn’t just happen.  Ever.  Internal stillness takes practice.  It is the fruit of hiddenness—a life that’s lived looking at God, and life of wonder in Him—and it needs to be cultivated.”

I know that quiet and still moments are best when talking with the Lord.  But I am learning to see Him and talk to Him in the “middle moments” of life, when I’m wiping up muddy footprints or washing dishes or folding dishes.  I’m also learning {albeit ever so slowly} that sometimes I just need to stop working and sit with Him.  Sara says in Unseen that “I was looking at spending time with God as something that happened when all the work of life was complete, not something I could choose right in the middle of barreling through it.”

If you’re looking for a good read, I highly recommend Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World that Loves to be Noticed.  And maybe you can look for some middle moments to behold the wonder of our God.  This week I learned to see the Gospel opportunities in the footprints on my floors.