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

Recently, I sat in church next to my eldest daughter, Hannah, and her daughter, Anastasia, who was sitting on her mother's knee whilst eating with her hands. I thought, I am glad my time has passed to get involved with those sticky hands. It is a bête noire for me — something I dislike, due to previous experiences.

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

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

Later, my 15-year-old daughter Zoë rang me to say that she had mislaid the spare key for our front door, having used it previously to enter. Now, not having her key or the one that she should have replaced earlier, she had effectively locked herself out. Fortunately, 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 over 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 asked Jesus to be involved with my predicament, to find the wayward key. The next place that I checked was the pocket of her denim jacket, which was hiding behind the dressing gown and hoodie that I had already 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 from church with my daughter and grandchild. God cares about the messiness of life that we get drawn into, and He waits, unasked, for us to call out.

Let's remember that as we cast about, God is waiting, until we stop and recognize that we need His wisdom and help.

Prayer: Lord, open our eyes to see You in the everyday circumstances of our lives. We thank You that when we call out, You clean us 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, we pray. Amen.

Forward this devotional     Share on Facebook

About the author:

Rod Marshall <roderickhenrymarshall@gmail.com>
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Send your feedback to the author