The Flap of Plastic Wrap (And what it taught me :)

Very odd title today, I know. ;) Bear with me. So, as many of you are aware, my family and I are in the process of moving from our current home to the city where we are starting a church, about an hour and forty minutes away. We've been commuting around 3 times a week down there for the past 9 months, which definitely got a little old. During the summer when we were taking 2 vehicles, we were driving over 600 miles a week total. Anyway, we are both excited to be moving, and a bit sad to be leaving the home where we have lived for almost 3 years now. Our house is slowly descending into the inevitable chaos of moving...to give you an example, today I created a label for one of the boxes that read "Christmas Decor/Paint Stick/Music Stand" How random can you get?? :D I'm getting sidetracked here: returning to the story of the plastic wrap. 

My baby sister, Miriam, is about 14 months old now, and is such a curious little stinker! She is what we like to call "legs with no brain" meaning she can walk, but can't really think through any of her actions yet. Kinda scary, for us at least. ;) As I was gathering decorations, clocks, etc. off the walls, I piled them on the floor in the living room and set to work wrapping them all in a layer of newspaper, and then plastic wrap stuff we use for moving. I wrapped a sign, and a tiny tail of the plastic was sticking up off of the back of it. Just then, Miriam shows up, determined to either help me or wreak havoc (sometimes it's hard to tell which!). She picked up the small sign, and caught sight of the plastic flap. A look of the most intense wonder and amazement came over her little expression, and she spent at least the next 5 minutes gingerly picking at the tiny tail. I laughed so hard at that...what did she find so incredible about a little curl of plastic? But later, as I thought about it, it struck me as really sweet that something so little could bring her so much satisfaction. 

I wonder if God feels this way about us sometimes? Do we ever take the time to notice the tiny things in His creation? Have you ever stopped to think about the fact that the God Who created the towering mountains, the thundering waves of the sea, and the vast, dazzling splendor of the stars, ALSO created that microscopic little pillbug you dug out of the flowerbed the other day? Or the grains of dirt and sand that you're standing on? I heard a message preached once on praising God, and the preacher brought out something that I hadn't thought about before. When we thank God for our food, a lot of times we don't ever realize exactly how much of God's hand went into getting that provision onto our table. Let's say you are having waffles for dinner. (Or chicken and waffles, if you happen to be one of my friends from the Southern U.S. ;) The flour you used to make it was once a pile of tiny wheat grains that were planted somewhere by a farmer you will never know. Months passed as the wheat grew and turned from green to gold, and was finally harvested. It was sent to a factory or mill, where it was separated, cleaned, ground, packaged, and sent out to the store, where your mom picked it up from the shelf. That is ONE INGREDIENT in your dinner, folks. And God knew exactly where that wheat came from, which chicken laid the eggs you put in, what cow provided the milk...I don't know, maybe I'm being ridiculous, but I find that amazing!!! Let's take some time this week to think about the billions (literally...) of tiny things that God has lined up in order to provide for us. In Colossians 1:17, it says "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." God is working in your life in SO. MANY. WAYS. By Him all things consist...in other words, without God, we would not exist. End of story. Praise God for how He works in each of our lives to make it possible for us to serve Him!
Mykaela