I finally found my shell hunting spot. It’s about two miles down the beach. Twice a day I have put my music on and anticipated great moments beachcombing with God. After two days I developed some blisters on the bottom of my feet and had to walk much more slowly to my spot. That’s when it happened. On the way to searching for treasures I looked down and spotted a smooth quartz-like stone and I picked it up. It was quite lovely. Due to my slower pace I looked down again and began to find more of those smooth stones.

Something was happening. On the way to meet with God, God was already meeting with me. A big grin appeared on my face as I started to learn the lesson of the smooth stones. God is always present, always teaching, always tossing out blessings in our path. We miss so many tender moments with Him because we want to get to the big stuff and often walk right by the beauty of now. Through Jesus, God came to us and the Holy Spirit walks every step that we walk.

In Luke 8 a Jewish leader, Jairus, has asked Jesus to come to his home to save his dying young daughter. On the way to this miracle we see another miracle play out. A woman with a long and lingering illness fights her way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ robe and be healed. Jesus immediately knew power had gone out of him and stopped to seek out that woman. She had faith and she was healed. What if she had let Jesus pass by because He was on His way to do something important? What if she hadn’t known that the moments between the moments are powerful too and that Jesus is always present?

In the lesson of the smooth stones I realized that every moment is precious because He is present to me and speaking to me. Perhaps the limitations/blisters/inconveniences we experience are useful to slow us down so that we can see and hear all that He has for us. What smooth stones are you missing because you don’t see value in the present moment?

Perhaps a limp isn’t so bad after all. By the way, after I learned the important lesson He was teaching me I continued on to my favorite spot and low and behold, the perfect whelk shell I had asked Him for was waiting there for me!