A million little moments. The small, the seemingly insignificant, the tiny seconds. Those are the moments I’ve been thinking about lately. The ones that we don’t realize are groundbreaking until after. Maybe moments after. Maybe years after.
I couldn’t tell you what brought this on. Maybe it’s how I’ve been praying. I have a bible study with eighth and ninth grade girls, and we started talking about praying specifically and intentionally. While I’ve been doing this, I’ve tried to pray for things with complete abandon. To pray for things I’ve been too scared to ask for. To be bolder. More confident in what He is capable of. Because I pray the way I do, I’ve started to notice every little thing He does. Or at least, every little thing I can keep up with.
It might be because I don’t live at home anymore. I find that, every day, there is something new to see. A new road I’ve never driven down. A new park to go and explore. A new historical landmark of some kind, considering DC is full of those. But sometimes, when I’m lucky, I’ll see one of those sunsets that make me think heaven can’t be too far away. Or a field that I drive by every day has new flowers scattered across it. A little sunshine after a rainy day looks different here.
Maybe it’s my job. I teach 4 year olds every day. We learn about seasons, numbers, letters. The usual preschool stuff everyone already knows about. But then, there are the moments people don’t see. The small moments of light. The ones where they pray for Santa Claus during prayer requests. When I pack pretzels every day simply so they can “steal” them. When their little hands reach for mine and hang there with confidence and comfort. When they try to tell knock-knock jokes and make zero sense. Or when they get hurt. When they cry about things that are happening at home. When their hearts break, when 4 year old hearts shouldn’t ever have to. Doing life with them makes me see the entire world differently. But really, it creates perspective. I get a glimpse into how Abba sees me through how I see them.
I took moments like this for granted for a long time. I still do sometimes. The preparation for this trip has shown me so many things I wish I would have noticed in my life. Especially the special small moments I wish I could remember more clearly. There are a million things I would have done differently, and all of those things would have seemed small then. Because it’s the small moments that create the foundation for the big moments.
I want to stop living for the big, monumental moments while forgetting the meaning in the small seconds. The coffee talks on Saturday mornings. The time I get to read before bed after a long day of looking forward to it. Folding laundry while I watch some old movie my Dad and I love so I can think of him. I want to take advantage of every small moment I get.
Those moments are where the magic happens. Abba, be made known in the mundane. Only you can take the monotonous and make it miraculous.
a million messy moments to go,
Madison
