When reading the Easter story, I have always liked when Mary comes to the tomb and doesn’t recognize Jesus. The moment when Jesus asks if it is true that she doesn’t recognize him and then suddenly she does. I think of this at Easter. We see the miracles of God, but we don’t recognize them until we question what we are seeing and a quiet voice says, “Don’t you recognize me”? Suddenly we know that the moment was a blessing from God, a word from God, a tender grace of God. It is as if at the moment it is happening, in the here and now, we are too busy to see it. We are distracted by life, we try hard to figure out what exactly we are seeing and we are determined to give it another name.
“Certainly that wasn’t God”, we think and then in the next second, or minute or hour we realize perhaps it was.
These kind of blessings come in many forms. I gaze on my nearly grown children and find myself thinking what a miracle they are; what a gift it has been to be their mother. A gift I certainly didn’t earn. They are a gift from God which of course is a cliché, but I feel it so certainly. My husband is beyond patient with my taciturn disposition. I have expected him to read my mind for 22 years and now he’s getting the hang of it. Many people don’t put up with that and yet there he is each day at 11:30 am ready to have lunch with me without coercion. Blessings are often overlooked.
At VBS two years ago the children were asked to watch for “God sightings”. A “God sighting” was any small blessing they might encounter, a new friend, a pretty cloud, a snack they really liked. At the end of the day each child would bring a little, battery powered, tea light and place it on the edge of the stage as they thanked God for their “God sightings”. It was simple, but powerful. It reminded children and adults to look for God where we don’t think to look for Him. It taught us to be open to a miracle, to God’s presence among us even when we are distracted by our expectations.
This Easter share some of your “God sightings” with your family. Model for your children the way to find God in the simple things and in the complex. Remembering to look for God will help to extend the memory of the miracle of Easter for the rest of the year.
