Look Closely! 

Sunday June 23^rd 2024 (week 74)
 
ACTS 12: 6-11
 
Driving is almost a hobby for me and so I`m quite happy behind the wheel of my car. But I’m also conscious that in my concentration I probably miss out on a lot of life as it passes me by - at 29 MPH of course! It also reminds me that it is easy to speed through life and not recognise everyday blessings.
 
When the Right Reverend Patrick Glover, Bishop of the Free State (Blomfontein) in South Africa graciously wrote an introduction to my first devotional notes nearly twenty years ago he quoted a television advert that said, “Life’s a journey, enjoy the ride”. Lots of people are coasting through life enjoying all the pleasures it offers. Holidays, gatherings with friends and family, nights at the theatre, and long walks are all highly enjoyable. The problem comes when we become so absorbed in our enjoyment that we fail to recognise the blessings and their source.
 
In today’s reading from Acts we are told that Peter also did not at first recognise the blessing of a miracle and I wonder how often we are guilty of the same thing.
 
At the very beginning of my writing career I also failed to recognise a series of miracles God performed for me. Bearing in mind that I failed my English O’Level at school I had no background or credibility as a writer. But as Jesus saved me on my own Damascus Road He also said, “I’m going to run your life from now on”. Within a short space of time, he began to demonstrate how he would do that using a Christian woman I had never met by the name of Doreen Lofthouse, the owner of the highly successful Fisherman’s Friend (lozenges) business. Doreen was notoriously private and rarely gave interviews but did so for me, a completely unknown writer. The article sold to Lancashire Life and my whole career was built on that single foundation.
 
Not too long after that experience, our rather dilapidated car was written off outside our home when our elderly next-door neighbour got his foot stuck on the pedal of his automatic car and reversed at speed into ours. Fortunately, he was ok, but our car wasn’t. That was just as a new magazine was being launched by a very small energy-based business and they wanted someone to write it. One of the columns was to be on motoring and for the next two or three years motoring manufacturers delivered a new vehicle to my door every Monday morning, taxed, fully insured, and with a full tank of fuel.
 
Then there was the time a landlord wanted to charge us (unfairly) three hundred pounds for alleged damage to a carpet. The Mail on Sunday paid me three hundred pounds for an article entitled, “Fools gold danger for landlords in a hurry”.
 
I could go on, but the point is that I didn`t recognise those miracles for quite some time. But as Peter went on to say, “Now I know that it is really true……..”.
 
If we are not looking for the miracles we will not see them, but when we open our eyes, and perhaps just as important, take the time to look closely we will see that they are all around us waiting for us to accept the blessing.
 
Bishop Patrick did say “Yes, life’s a journey”, but he added “….and in company with Jesus and one another, we can indeed, “enjoy the ride”.
 
 
Prayer: Father, thank you that you are ready, willing, and able to perform all kinds of miracles in our lives. Please help us to look more closely at what you are doing for us day by day.