God Working

One of the lectionary readings for this week is Joel 2:23-32 which says:

NIV Joel 2:23 Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the LORD your God, for he
has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. {23 Or the teacher for
righteousness:} He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as
before. 24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will
overflow with new wine and oil. 25'I will repay you for the years the locusts
have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the
locust swarm {25 The precise meaning of the four Hebrew words used here for
locusts is uncertain.} --my great army that I sent among you. 26 You will have
plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your
God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27
Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that
there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. 28 'And afterward, I
will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my
servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. 30 I
will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and
billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to
blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 32 And
everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion
and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the
survivors whom the LORD calls.

The text says that God's spirit is poured out upon the earth and that people will know clearly that God is at work through a great display of "wonders in the heavens and on the earth."

It is hard to drive down a road this time of year and not be in amazement of God's handiwork of creation. The brilliant colors that accompany the changing from summer to winter brings home to me that God is mighty and wonderful. I believe that the beauty of this season is a gift from our Creator God to help awaken us to His great love. I also think that God does not limit His actions to the seasons of the year or creation itself. God works overtime in our livesto help us understand that we are loved, cared for, and have a purpose and destiny beyond ourselves. It is our awareness and thankfullness of God's handiwork that brings us one step closer to God. And our awareness is simply a function of our perspective. Do you and I view things through God's eyes or through our human eyes? Do we see and embrace things around us as God inspired and ordained, or do we see them so other way?

Take a moment today and look at the trees around you. Or stop to look at the faces of children playing in a yard. The list can go on and on. I encourage you to take a step back and to look for God in the extraordinary as well as the mundane. God is working, that I believe with all my heart. Will I notice and be blessed or just put my head down and miss it?