Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
I thought about my granddaughter Joscelyn Timberlake when I looked at the row of Knock Out rose bushes. They needed trimming and fertilizing. I wonder if Josie would like to help me with that. Maybe I’ll give her a call this afternoon and see if she’ll spend part of a gardening day with me.
Josie is a teenager and her social calendar is full, with friends and school and play rehearsals. Since I don’t send text messages or check our Facebook pages frequently, we can lose touch in the busy schedule of both our lives. But, I needed help and Josie had loved working with me one morning in the garden. Besides, I am a great believer in mentoring by working with one another. It is my experience that competence and confidence are built when children, teens, and young adults achieve aptitudes in cooking, for instance, driving cars, or helping grandmothers in their gardens.
Lo and behold, when I arrived home, the phone rang, and it was Joscelyn calling to ask, “Nonnie, can I help you in the garden some day this week?” (I know from decades of living that sometimes we just grow a little tired of all our good friends, and sensed that maybe Joscelyn just needed to be with another age set.)
So Josie came past (arriving chauffeured by her father in the red convertible; she isn’t old enough to have a license). She ran the Rototiller for me in the front kitchen garden—a first. She deadheaded geraniums and irises, cut back the chives, trimmed the fading jonquil spears—all those little tasks that keep offending the passionate gardener’s eye, but take second stage to more demanding projects (like building four boxes for raised beds in the vegetable garden and getting them set in the dirt).
Then, because I had been working all morning and was reaching a point of exhaustion, Josie and I went bumping around doing errands, running to the nursery (she may be 14, but she loved the delightful “fairy gardens” the staff had created at my favorite growers), dropping past and saying “Hi!” to her toddler cousins, watching the Emmy Award-winning HBO production Temple Grandin (which she loved, as I suspected she might), and throwing a dinner together in the kitchen to share with Papa before he took her home.
In short, it was a perfectly enchanting day.
Time with those we love, no matter their age, are gifts from God. And so, I thank Him that Josie and my thoughts about one another crossed in that place, wherever it is, where love pauses to pay attention and think, Hm-m-m-m, I’d like to see Josie/Nonnie. I wonder what she’s doing today.
In these seemingly little, but really profound pleasures, I find His love.
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.
Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.
Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.
For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.
Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
