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Seeking





But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)


          Apparently, yesterday was a good day for seeking. Since the predicted rain failed to show, I left for Presque Isle State Park before 7 am seeking whatever creatures I might find. Usually, I have at least a little success with birds. I was also thinking about the type of praying that I shared here yesterday. I tend to say, “Let me see a __________” (the list tends to start with a Bald Eagle but I’m learning to be flexible.) Today, I said, “What do You want to show me?” 
          It didn’t take long for the answer to come, “I want you to see Me.”
          I know, it’s like William Blake said, “To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.”[1] But, I also think of Elijah, who discovered that God was not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but in the soft whisper (I Kings 19:11-13)
          I can’t say that I found God in any special way, but I found myself thinking about seeking. That’s why I go out there. I’m seeking something. I don’t know if it’s always the same thing. It might be adventure, or beauty, or creativity, or discovery, or an escape from boredom, or peace, or some combination of those and more. Whatever it is, that search hides behind the more obvious search for something to photograph.
          When I got home, Dad told me to look in the garbage can. Apparently Grace had been seeking, too. He looked out the window and saw her biting at and digging at something. When she wouldn’t stop because he pounded on the wall (never effective, I’ve found), he went out and took a dead mouse away from her. It hadn’t been dead long, and there doesn’t look to be damage. I’m sure she killed it but I don’t know that she really meant to. I’m convinced that some of her digging in the yard is because she smells, sees, or hears vermin and she’s trying to reach it. She’s seeking something: adventure, friendship, maybe just the answer to “what is that?”  
          I don’t think I’ll ever display her boundless enthusiasm for her search but what I lack in youthful energy, I may make up for in stubbornness. People talk about finding God. I suspect they’re referring to finding Him that first miraculous time, but today’s passages don’t sound to me like a onetime thing, or even like an every-once-in-a-while thing. These verses sound more like a Moulder-seeking-the-truth thing, or an Ahab-hunting-the-white-whale thing, or maybe like a doctor-seeking-a-cure-for-Malaria (or cancer, or AIDS, or ebola.)




[1] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williambla150124.html

 

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