Don't look at that -- look at Me!

     When my youngest child was a toddler and his four his siblings were in school, I was his chief playmate and source of entertainment. There were times during our day together when I grew weary of playing G.I. Joe, Stars Wars and Nintendo, and would reach for a magazine and discreetly page through it while pretending to be engaged in our activity.

     It was not long before my son took notice of my actions. Reaching with his sweet little hand, he turned my face toward him and said, “Don’t look at that – look at me!” His gentle way of calling me back managed to touch my heart and make him, once again, the object of my focus.


     Like my little son, our God too longs for our love and attention. We sometimes get so distracted by life that we take our focus away from God and place it everywhere else instead. He sends us gifts and wonders many times a day, but we are often just too busy to even notice. Our lives are filled with activities and things that keep us going at a rapid pace and eventually leave us feeling spent. We yearn for something to fill ourselves and frequently, miss the mark -- and if we do achieve ‘that feeling,’ it is usually fleeting.

     In Holy Scripture Christ tells us, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22 vs. 37). Loving God wholeheartedly means striving to keep Him at our center. It means thinking about Him, day in and day out. It means speaking with Him, sharing our joys and struggles, telling Him we love Him. It means doing things with Him and taking delight in Him. It means looking for Him and seeing Him in all of the beauty of creation: noticing each pedal of a flower, the changing colors of the sky, the vast variety of birds and their chirping, and watching the ever changing movement of the ocean.
   
     Could we not become as little children who discover the world with eyes filled with awe and wonder! The world around us shouts of the glory of God, but we are often just too busy to even observe it. Because our good God is so very patient and gentle with us, each day He continues to beckon us to become aware of His loving presence.

     We need to slow down, at least mentally, to be able to recognize and experience the many ways God breaks into our lives. We may not be able to change the duties and obligations that come with our state in life, but we change the way we navigate through them.

     A brief remembrance of Papa as our day begins will not only make His day, but ours. As we go about our day, stealing a moment here and there for a quick ‘connection’ to our Source will keep us plugged in and powered up. Taking time, when we are able, to ‘stop and smell the roses,’ and then taking  it one step further, by calling to mind the One who created them in the first place. Stopping, at the end of our day, to share with our Dear Sweet God all that happened to us; thanking Him for accompanying us and then leaving all of our cares and concerns in His most capable hands, so we can rest in His love and peace.

     Our God loves us so very much that He wants to be part of everything we do. Like my little son, He longs for our gaze and will continue to do what He must, to vie for our attention. Let us try our best to keep our focus on Him so He will not have to gently turn our head and say, “Don’t look at that – look at Me!”