A few days ago, I came home from work and wanted to watch some TV and relax. As I sat down on the couch, I was informed by my wife that little black remote that controls the volume to the sound bar had gone missing.
A little back story… Earlier that day, my kids had been playing and apparently, they thought it would be good to play with the little black remote. I’m not really sure why, but my three-year-old son decided he would hide the remote. When my wife (and daughter) asked him where the little black remote was, he would just shrug his shoulders and say, “I can’t know where it is.” At one point in the grilling of my son about the whereabouts of the remote, he added, “I put it in a tricky place.” I know, real cute.
Back to my part of the story… As I was informed of the missing little black remote, my wife said we could just watch TV anyway, that it’d be a little loud but not horrible. I went on a little hunt myself (with the help of my daughter), looking in what I thought would be a tricky place for a three-year-old to hide a remote. No luck. We watched our show despite the volume being slightly elevated. We went to bed that night still not having found the little black remote.
I woke up the next morning on a mission, determined to find it. I looked again in all the places I had looked the night before: in the toy box, behind the TV, in the pantry, and in the laundry baskets, but I found nothing. I was getting ready to leave my house to run a couple of errands and just happened to look in the baby’s bouncy seat, and behold, there was the little black remote under the baby’s jacket. It was not in a tricky place at all, but actually it was in a place we easily overlooked. I realized that day that my son’s definition of “tricky” is not a reliable clue! “Tricky” meant we should have looked in the routine, obvious places!
I was remembering the whole scenario later, and it got me to thinking… We as Christ-Followers oftentimes think that God has put the things He designed for us in “tricky” places. We want to experience the promises of God for our lives, but they just seem to be hiding in the tricky places in life, out of sight and out of reach.
What I learned that day is that what is hidden is not necessarily hidden in the tricky but in the routine. Maybe you need direction in your life, but you need to move that distraction in your life in order to see that your direction is right there. Or maybe you are asking God to bless your life financially, but the answer might not be that you win the lottery; maybe instead, your answer will be in your getting into a routine of putting Him first in the tithe.
My takeaway for you and me is that we can oftentimes find what we are looking for in the routine of life if we don’t overlook it just because it’s routine. Perhaps the direction you need is found in the routine of reading the Bible every day. Perhaps the words of God to you are found in the routine of going to church regularly.
Matthew 7.7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
I am still learning to not overlook the routine in order to find my little black remote in life. This was just a little reminder for me from God.
