by Maria Hartman

Something seemingly insignificant caught my attention this weekend. It was a little boy who had obviously just learned to tie his shoes. So what’s the big deal? Well it was the way he locked his eyes onto what his sweet little fingers were doing. His full concentration was on the task. He paid no attention however to the noise around him; his gaze was ‘fixed’!

 Whenever we learn something new, we give it our full attention so that we can process and integrate all the necessary information. It is true with anything we learn really. All of us were like that boy at one time. But now we no longer need to think about the coordination involved because we have the pattern established in our brain. We don’t even need to look at what we’re doing…our eyes aren’t a necessary component any longer. You can be certain however that our eyes were completely necessary when we began.

What if we approached God like this little boy approached his shoes? What if we focused our eyes and hands and minds on Him to such an extent that the background noise was simply irrelevant? What if every bit of His grace in our lives was examined and attended to as an opportunity to learn of Him? What would we see? What do we miss each and every day as we go through the motions of things we already know how to do? What beauty do we pass right by as we move from one thing to the next? Many questions and much to think about…..

For Today: What can a little boy tying his shoes teach a grown woman who has been tying her shoes for decades? Nothing if the action itself is all that is seen, but a great deal if the God who fashioned those awkward little hands gets her attention to ‘see’ past the action itself. Friends, I am amazed time and time again at how the little ones have so much to teach us big ones. And I am even more amazed that the Most High God of all grace is never done teaching me.

When was the last time He had your full attention………your eyes, your mind, and your hands? And when was the last time you practiced His ways over and over again until they just became a part of who you are?….Not so that you go through the motions with what you’ve learned, but so that it becomes as natural for you to do as………say,…….tying your shoes.