After Job came through the trials of his life, he proclaimed to God, "I had heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes" (Job 42:5). Perhaps it takes much of a lifetime for some of us to truly see God in us and around us. Few of us would see getting stuck in traffic, a broken appliance, the death of a loved one, loss of a relationship, development of a lifelong friendship, or connecting with a spouse in quite the same way at the age of twenty that we do later in life. Perhaps we lose the clarity of a hurting child like Kenny, become too set in our chosen paradigms to understand God in the rituals and lifeways of another culture, or feel His loving arms when life crashes in on us.

This busy, noisy world can crowd out the progress of the flowering bush we may pass each day, the joy of childhood discoveries, or the whispered voice within us as we pass someone on the street. We and our universe are truly fearfully and wonderfully made. Peel off the layers of life and get to where God is waiting for you.