Love in Plain Sight

Do you ever wonder if God really cares about the details of your everyday life?
Everyday Faith: Seeing God in the Small Stuff ~ February Theme

Message for Feb. 2, 2025 on John 15:9-13; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13 given at St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Richardson, Texas

Sometimes at the end of my prayers or even when I am putting on my makeup in the morning, I listen to an online meditation.

One of them concludes by asking me to call to mind time when I felt loved. The meditation says not just to remember the moment mentally, but to feel and experience that love again, feeling the happy, happy, joy, joy that being loved by another person evokes. What a great way to start the day!

Many of us think of February as the month of love. As soon as the Christmas decorations came down, the hearts went up. Valentine’s Day is less than 2 weeks away, and I have been seeing the “best gifts lists” for a couple weeks now–even for “galentines” “palentines” “puppytines” “parentines” “gran & gramptines” as well as, you know, your Valentine if you have one.

We have barely recovered from Christmas and the consumer culture is happy to make up relationships it never occurred to you, to buy a Valentine for. And TikTok and Reels will show you how to wrap it to perfection. And I hope your manicure or your man-hands look as good as theirs, too.

At this time of year we think love requires a grand gesture–the nicest jewelry, the biggest flower bouquet, the best restaurant–expressions of love need to be loud and proud and instagram-worthy. Now, I have nothing against grand gestures once in a while. I love a bouquet of flowers as much as the next person. But I also think that we can put so much emphasis on the big stuff, that we miss how much love shows up in the small stuff, in the daily details of life—so much so that we wonder if God even cares about the daily details of our life–or is even present in them. Does God really care or even show up in the struggle and details of our daily life?

In our Gospel reading, Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. Abide in my love. What a great word, abide. We don’t really use it in everyday language much, which makes it even better.

Jesus means remaining, staying in, continuing in a stable, fixed, constant, on-going state of love. It describes what Jesus means when he says, I am the vine and you are the branches. The branches remain eternally, always, continually connected to the vine from which it receives all it needs.

So, we are eternally, always, continually connected to God’s love through Jesus: Jesus abides in God, God abides in Jesus, Jesus abides in us, we abide in Jesus, God abides in us––it's a big, happy circle; a never ending, continuous, constant sharing of God’s love!

Does God care about the details of our life? How can God not? He’s perpetually in the circle of them–with love! Of course–God is naturally, necessarily, constitutionally, bodily, spiritually, part and parcel of our everyday lives–God’ love is abiding in them right down to the details with us. This is why First Corinthians says, Love never ends…

God doesn’t think–whoa, hold on, Linda’s shifting from prayer to email to calendar-checking, so, uh that’s nothing to do with with ME or with Love, so I’m out. I’ll check in later if she starts consciously praying again.

No! It’s abiding, constant love, a fixed stable, continuous state of being. Faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these, is love.

The question is not is God’s love present, is Jesus interested, do we matter, is there hope and help for the daily stuff of life? The question is, are we noticing? Are we paying attention?

Are we asking for help when it’s needed trusting love is there? Are we seeing love when it shows up, trusting it’s always available? Are we naming love and help as sacred, and as signs of God’s presence when we receive it– ?

Or do we say, “that was lucky, that was nice, what a coincidence…” and move on as if God’s love does not abide with us, in us, and in all things through Christ?

We like to get mad at God when things don’t go our way, when life is hard in this fallen world, but do we notice God, thank God, recognize Jesus in all the small ways God’s love shows up for us everyday?

Of course God is in the details–it’s the very reason Jesus became human to begin with.

At the end of that guided meditation I mentioned at the beginning, I often think of my wedding day because so many people came together. Many relatives, who I can still see sitting in the church and in the little parsonage where we lived, are no longer with us, and it’s good to feel their love again. And then my memory goes to a Christmas Day in St. Louis when I opened gifts from all three kids. Dan had taken Daniel to frame a piece of art he made; Dan helped Leah put together a booklet of poems she wrote that year in 5th grade, and he had Jacob write his own poetic masterpiece describing his mom.

I felt so very loved by these personal, homemade gifts and the effort Dan put in. With tears streaming down my face, my whole chest was full of warmth and light, and then it just filled my whole being.

I wonder what moment your mind wanders to, when asking this question. When was a time when you felt loved? When you felt noticed, valued, appreciated, deeply loved?

Let’s not just remember that moment, but feel and experience that love again, not just in your mind, but throughout your whole being, experiencing the happy, happy, joy, joy that love made you feel….

Maybe you thought of a big event or holiday like I did. And you might think that these moments were not the small moments–they were days of grand gestures—a wedding and Christmas. But the moments I felt loved were still the small ones–relatives and friends showing up, homemade bread for Holy Communion from Dan’s grandmother who couldn’t come to the wedding, brunch at the house on Sunday morning, homemade gifts with our kids reading poems and sharing art. And maybe recognizing love in the big events helps train our eyes to see Jesus’ love abiding in us and for us in the small stuff, too.

Feeling deeply loved and the happy, happy, joy, joy from a special memory may help open your eyes to other moments recently. Maybe now you see God’s love in plain sight:

• showing up in your child or grandchild’s teacher, or another parent;
  In the person who called just to see how you were
  In a card you received in the mail
  In the cheer of the service you received at a restaurant,
  the energy of a barista,
  all the drivers who did NOT cut you off this week
  in a tidbit of wisdom from a kid

How many instances of kindness and patience have you experienced lately? Have you experienced someone forgiving your foibles, bearing your shortcomings, believing in you, hoping for you?

All of this is sacred love as Corinthians describes it. Can you see the shimmering of God’s love in, with, and underneath all of these kinds of moments?

Yesterday, I thanked my best friend for being a sign of God’s love for me over the phone, and also my sister, Julie, as we talked about the 13th Anniversary of our Mom’s death.

Last Thursday night I drove to the Dallas Area Interfaith Meeting south of downtown, almost near the Zoo. I was tired, it was dark, traffic was still heavy, and I was going somewhere I had never been. When I arrived, members of the Golden Gate Missionary Baptist church directed us to parking, showed us where to sign in, and when I finally got inside the sanctuary, I saw a friendly face–Pr. Cathy Sweeny from Arapaho United Methodist. When I left a few minutes early, one of the parking attendants walked me to my car, and I got home safely. Every moment of the evening, I felt God’s love taking care of me.

We often think of love as something we do for others, and certainly, you all do this so very well. This month of love, I invite you to notice, and therefore to receive and experience the love of God that is abiding with you, and is continually showing up for you in plain sight—–in the small stuff–--in strangers, in children and what they say and do, in other people who spend their life and work serving, in arriving at your destination safely, in a loved one who offers a small gesture, whether a hug, a hot meal, a kind word.

Keep track, write it down at the end of the day–make a Love Abides List or God in the Small Stuff Jar, or better yet, use the God in the Small Stuff Bingo Card this month! Get 2 Bingos and turn it in by the end of the month and I’ll take you to lunch to hear your stories (if we have bunches of them we’ll do a drawing!).

We are always abiding in God’s love–Jesus says it is so his joy might be in us and our joy might be made complete. He wants us to experience happy happy joy joy!—

Jesus abides in us to experience this joy not just in big events and gestures, but every day–in small ways that shimmer and show God’s love.

So be on the lookout for signs of love, trusting that God’s abiding presence is definitely in the details of our every day.