It was a regular ‘ole day at Wal-Mart. I try not to despise Wal-Mart.
I try and see the interesting people there as people like me- getting deals,
feeding their families. So, they forgot to get changed out of their PJs. So,
they might have forgotten to take the rollers out of their hair. It happens to
the best of us, right? I keep walking, looking at my list, grabbing things,
searching for produce bags that are strategically hidden in the weirdest
corners. I am finding everything on my list and have that happy feeling that I may
not spend a hundred dollars today.
As I’m rounding the aisle I see the sign for apple cider
vinegar. My heart sinks. That happy feeling fades as I think how badly I wanted
to get the “raw” apple cider vinegar I’ve been reading so much about. The
regular non-raw stuff is for the birds apparently. The healthy raw stuff is
where it’s all at. I already went to Earthfare for the week and forgot to buy
it there and I needed apple cider vinegar for a recipe before I take another
trip to Earthfare. Wal-Mart doesn’t have that, I had already checked before. “I’m
going to have to settle for the non-raw stuff” I say to myself as I roll the
cart closer and closer to the bottles of vinegar. I look at the variety and like
a beam of light streaming down from heaven, almost glistening right in front of
my nose stood the raw apple cider vinegar! It is the only one, no sign for it
and totally out of place. Without thinking I grab it as if it might disappear
if I don’t snatch it up immediately. I bring it toward my chest and without thinking
close my eyes and literally say out loud, “He loves me!” It is so funny looking back on it because I
really was so excited, not because I found it but that He loved me. I actually
teared up and stood there staring at it in disbelief for a couple of minutes. It
was one of those times that you just know that God loves you.
Silly example? Probably… but in my simple life of Wal-Mart
trips, three loud & wild boys, inside out socks scattered throughout the
house and three day old bananas smashed and dried on my dining room floors,
this was a shout out from God to remind me, “Even
in the midst of the messy and hairy days that you live day in and day out, I
still see you. I love you in the little things, how much more do I
love you in the big things?” For
that minute at the grocery store you would have thought I just won the lottery…
well, because I did. He is my million
dollars. It’s in the little things that God likes to show up. Doesn’t he
always? He picked fishermen to be his disciples, He was born on a pile of hay,
He chooses the least ‘qualified’ and ‘holy’ to be His hands and feet and to
pour out His love on. Remember how He chose the shepherds to follow the star to
Bethlehem and
worship Him there in the manger? I’m the shepherd. I’m the nobody that God sees
and decided to surprise with His love. Sometimes His love is found through His
precious Word and sometimes it’s found at Wal-Mart in the form of raw apple
cider vinegar.
It wasn’t the fact that it was raw apple cider vinegar. It
was the fact that He knew that finding that would simply make my day. He really
does delight in us. I can’t help but think of the times I surprise the kids
with something they really want. Their face, their eyes, their excitement… is
there anything better? God is our Father, and He rejoices over us with singing.
How often I forget the myriad of ways He loves. When He shows up in big ways
it’s amazing and wonderful and awesome. We expect Him to show up big because He
is God- the Creator of the universe, after all. We love Him for it and sing his
praises and send out praise reports. I think it’s in those little things that
aren’t even worth mentioning that He really delights in, those small everyday
things that are just between you and Him. He knows they will encourage us,
delight us and teach us to not miss the small stuff because that’s where He
lives and moves and whispers His love for us. The mundane, the boring, the
everyday non-holy events, there He is breathing on us His affection, telling us
He loves us over and over and over again.
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