God IS in the details

So many times I've heard people say "God is not in the details of my life. He sets life in motion and then gives me free will to make the choices I will make." I'm not one of those people who say that. I don't think I've ever really believed that, although admittedly I've questioned Him on it. "Dude, WHERE.ARE.YOU!? I'm floundering here." Thankfully I met Christ in a very vulnerable spot as a young person and he came to me as a friend, not taught to me as this overpowering, stand offish, can't be touched God.

I went to a leader's retreat this past weekend in the beautiful Hocking Hills and had a really fun time. I got a lot of great information about myself that really turned around my beliefs about who I am and how it affects my daily life. What was really cool though is what happened a few days after the retreat.

In the first exercise Chris asked us to take a walk for about 20 minutes out in the beauty of the hills, take some time to think about the lies we are believing about ourselves and then ask God to give us a symbol (a visual, tangible symbol) and bring it back if we find one. So I walked and I thought and I recorded the lies that I believed. Then I remembered "Oh yea, I need a symbol. Lord, what is my symbol? Can you give me something to take back to the group?" I'm looking and looking and then in my mind I thought of an eggshell. And quite honestly I'm like, HOW is an eggshell a symbol of the lies I believe? So I start mulling it over trying to make it fit, all the while still searching for this miracle egg that certainly would just happen in my path and OH how cool would THAT be! And, no. No egg. No nests. No broken eggshells of any kind. So I go back to the cabin and listen to a few people share what was revealed to them, but certainly kept my own to myself bc heck I couldn't even make sense of what I got, let alone articulate it to a whole group.

Then a few days later I was catching up on my Bible study "The Names of God" and it was the day for "Lord the Creator." The author talked about the intricacies and science behind snowflakes. Did you know it could snow for years and not two snowflakes would ever be the same!? Well, in one exercise Mary Kassian asked us to research one thing in nature that interested us and see how God spoke to us through that and immediately the egg popped back in my mind. Isn't God amazing? I forget from day to day what I have going on and am suppose to do but something from three days ago pops right in there. So a'Googling I go! An egg is QUITE amazing. Did you know it is completely hard but also completely porous? Yep - 17,000 (plus or minues) pores in it yet just inside the egg is a membrane the protects the embryo from any bacteria reaching it. SO cool.

Okay, so an egg is very very strong because of it's arched shape and yet so very fragile that a tiny little egg tooth and crack it from the inside. And immediately it made me think of my own heart. Eh? Why? Because I thought "Well, my heart has two arches, so my heart must be very strong! Isn't God so cool to make us a doubley strong heart with two arches!?" Ha ha, wait a second. Back to Google. I check the images for the actual image of a human heart. *stunned awe* It's NOT actually shaped like the heart we learn to draw in Preschool?? Are you kidding me? Heck no, peeps, it's actually shaped like...wait for it...AN EGG!! Ta-dah!! It's oval in shape and bigger at the top getting smaller to the bottom. Oh be still my heart. *tongue in cheek* No seriously, at this moment in the study I'm stopped and in awe of God. He gave me this picture of an egg three days prior and I'm trying to wrap it around the lies I believe to make it fit. Maybe it's a broken egg and I'm realizing how fragile I really am. Uh, no! No, no, no. God made our hearts STRONG and AMAZING and TOUGH to break. God wasn't pointing me to how frail, broken and breakable I am. He was showing me how strong and amazingly/THOUGHTFULLY designed I am. God IS in the details. He always has been. He watched us as we were forming in the womb (also egg shaped) and has not taken His eyes off of any of us. He knows the number of hairs on our heads, which for me is an ALL DAY task of keeping up bc you should SEE the amount of hair I shed!

All this to say...God shows up. He speaks. He listens. He meets us right where we ask Him in and He is definitely in every decision we make. Once again, I am in awe of HOW COOL our God is. :)