“Acknowledging the Divine” 

My earliest memory of an omnipresent God was during a most unpleasant childhood event. It all began with my Dad and our mile long driveway. My father had just paved our driveway with blacktop. We were the first family on our street to obtain a paved driveway and my Dad was exceedingly proud of that fact. Dad spent his leisure time sweeping and washing down his pride and joy.

To make our driveway functional a drainpipe was inserted under the newly paved driveway to allow for runoff to pass through the drainage ditch. This little cave or drainpipe was enticing for a child filled with a spirit of adventure. If it was once; it was a thousand times my Dad warned against crawling in to that drainpipe.

One afternoon during a heated game of hide-n-seek and loosing repeatedly. I carefully crawled into the drainpipe for the perfect hiding place. Once inside the drainpipe; underneath my Fathers’ newly paved driveway I could hear my Dad’s warning not to venture into this drain. However, the taste of victory out weighted my best judgement. In fact, in the drainpipe the older kids could not find me and even gave up looking for me. Comprehending my victory I attempted to crawl out the drainpipe but quickly realized I was stuck. I could not move and began to scream for my life!

When my friends located me underneath the driveway they went in search of my Mom for help. She tried everything to pull me out from that drainpipe, even dousing me with olive oil to slide me out. All the efforts of my Mom and neighborhood were useless; I was in there for life! Out of desperation my Mother called the fire department and my Father.

When the fire department arrived and assess the situation they quickly gave my Dad the bad news. It would be necessary to gig me out from the grip of the drainpipe. The firemen needed to tear up our newly paved driveway. My Dad’s pride and joy! The moment I was lifted out and rescued from the drainpipe I could sense my Fathers disappointment and anger. Still sporting dirt on my face and blacktop in my hair my Father informed me I was grounded for the rest of my life. As the neighbors looked on and the firemen were packing up I overheard my Dad quietly say to one of the firemen, “there is not a moment that I forget or wonder what my kids are up too. I am praying for them constantly and that will never change!” At that moment I understood that mistakes, mishaps or wrongdoings are no match for my parent’s unconditional love.

My Father's constant worry and acknowledgment over his children is very similar to the acknowledgment proclaimed in Luke’s Gospel. We are to acknowledge God and keep in our hearts Gods eternal fidelity and everlasting presence in our midst. However as unfathomable as it may be to keep a constant acknowledgement upon God and the salvation offered by Christ, we realize before we ever stumbled upon faith, God first acknowledged and called us. We are always on God’s mind. If God was not constantly thinking of us we would cease to exist. When we realize the daily attention that comes to us from Christ it is only appropriate to spend a few moments contemplating and acknowledging Christs compassion and care. All that time we were trying to find God only to realize that God has already found us. It might be worthwhile to consider and acknowledge how does God see us? We might be surprised how Christ is omnipresent in our day and amazed with our very lives.