By Sharon Chiellini
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psalm 8:3-5
I often wonder just how many times through the course of a day, God leaves His fingerprints for me to see and I fail to notice. To be perfectly honest, I have a terrible habit of not noticing things. My daughter was walking around with a monstrous barbell earring in her ear that stretched from the hole on the side of her ear all the way up to the hole on the top of her ear, and from within the fog that was obviously surrounding my brain, I had failed to notice for several days. When my sister-in-law, Sandy, walked into the house, she took one look at Bethany and exclaimed "Ewww! What's that hideous thing in your ear?" After the initial shock of wondering how I could possibly have not noticed, I went directly into disbelief that my daughter could actually think that having an ugly silver barbell in her ear could in any way be attractive, I came to the realization that, last I checked, she only had two holes in each ear, not 4! Needless to say she's back to having 2. I may be slow but I'm not soft.
My poor husband has repeatedly suffered from the painful realization that I am a little slow on the uptake. Just last week he shaved off his entire goatee, which has adorned his face for years, and even after asking me if I noticed anything different about him, I was still oblivious. Not only did I fail to notice the absence of his goatee, I also failed to see the huge mole that had been hiding beneath it all these years and was now exposed to daylight!
Have you ever experienced a time when you felt completely invisible? I vividly remember a time when my family left church to go home and didn't realize that I wasn't with them. I sat on the sidewalk for what seemed like an eternity waiting for their inevitable return. It took them considerably longer than I would have liked. I guess I should be thankful they came back at all. Strangely enough, what went through my mind as I waited was how bad my Mom was going to feel when she realized I wasn't there. I couldn't wait for her to see that I was OK. I didn't want her to feel bad. I still hate making people feel bad. Mike affectionately refers to this as my "bleeding heart". (However it goes without saying that he does NOT suffer from this affliction) I especially hate feeling that I have grieved the Holy Spirit by ignoring Him or making Him feel invisible in my life.
My prayer today and every day is that I don't miss the things that God so desperately wants me to see. I know His fingerprints are all over my life, from my birth, to the day I sat on the sidewalk waiting for my family to come back, to today and every day in between. All we need to do is pray for a little dusting powder from the Holy Spirit to dust for His fingerprints.
Why is dusting for God's fingerprints important? If you don't know what God had His hands on in your life, you won't know the difference between what was important to Him and what He had no part of. Trust me, there is a world of difference between the two! Also, since we are supposed to be Jesus with skin on, that means he'll sometimes use OUR fingerprints, right? I pray that my own fingerprints are directed by the Lord and show up in all the right places and none of the wrong ones. Amen?
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Until next time my friend,
Strength and honor in Christ
