snot smeared sheet

My daughter has a cold right now.  She is being a real trooper about the whole thing.  After a week of snot she is just starting to get a little red around the nose.  Quite appropriate for this time of year I guess.  I am thankful again and again for two young nose blowers.  The cold season is so much easier when a little kiddo knows how to blow.  The endless wiping can be monotonous.

Tonight I watched her eat the quesadillas her Daddy made for us.  Or rather heard her eat.  With each bite she managed to chew a few times before gasping for air.  It sure is hard to breath when you have a cold.  There is so much you take for granted until things don't function as they were meant to.

It got me thinking.  Isn't God amazing!?!  I mean, of course he is.  But he created two ways for our bodies to inhale oxygen.  There are seasons of our lives where the cares of this world overwhelm us.  They can be life-changing situations that seem all consuming.  It isn't until we have to take an intentional breath out loud that we hear and realize how thankful we are that God is physically breathing for us.  That our very existence is relying on the only pathway of air we have left.  Him.

Every morning this week, Babydoll has woken up with a nose completely snotted over.  Yet another reminder that without God's grace we would be incapable of anything.

Colds pass, seasons change, and we return to breathing thoughtlessly through our nose and mouth without a second of pause to say thanks.  How quickly we lose all gratitude for the gift of sustained life that we wept over with overwhelmed love not too long ago.  When we woke each morning and sat in the dark knowing the reality that we are nothing without him.  But today we act as if we don't need him.  As if we got this breathing thing down.

May it not take a "cold" for us to wake up from a snot smeared sheet and remember how much he loves us.  And how much we need Him.