"If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you," says the Lord.
(Jeremiah 29:13 NLT)
Yesterday was one of those rainy, cloudy stay-home days. As I opened the curtains in my office this morning looking for the sunshine, I took a quick look around the yard and the sight of the palm tree stopped me. "Wow!" I was amazed by the fern on the side of the tree. I know for sure that just two days ago, it looked like a bunch of dried up twigs stuck to the tree...the grey tree trunk and the browny-grey dead fern. I know that it always comes back...I've watched it for years. This time was just a surprise because our rainfall had been scant. Here it was...lush and full and so very green!
God is so often found in the small things. We expect his glory and his presence to be in grand spectacular vistas and happenings. Can we really see him in a batch of fern growing on the side of a tree? My answer is absolutely YES! When the fern is without water it slowly dries up and appears to be dead. But a little bit of water...nourishment...brings it back to glorious life. To me, this is God. It's God manifesting his presence to us. It's a message that he is closer to me than my breath if I will just open my spirit eyes to see him.
Theologian A. W. Tozer says the omnipresence of the Lord is one thing. We learn that in Sunday School; we expect it. The manifest presence of God is another thing altogether. We flee from that presence and from what it could mean on some deep level.
As he told Jeremiah, he is here for us to find him. Even in the fern living on the side of a tree.