Little Miracles

Mom with her great grandson, Isaac Lee. 

Our Lord interacts with us in unexpected ways, and I've come to believe that we miss a lot of little miracles because we aren't looking for them. Once in awhile, the Lord reaches out to us in a way that seems so strangely coincidental, we are prone to dismiss a God-connection because, well, it just seems too unlikely.

Discouragement can blind us to the little ways the Lord seeks to reassure us of His active presence in our lives.  Caregiving can be a discouraging job assignment, and it's good to be intentional about keeping the depression of discouragement at bay. One way to do this is to pray that the Lord opens our eyes to the many ways He shows us that He is not a God who is far off, but is intensely interested and involved in our everyday lives.

I was thinking today of one of those unlikely little coincidences that occurred when my daughter was about 4 months pregnant with her third son.  She had chosen a name that I just didn't think I liked.  It was a little unusual, I thought, and I wanted our newest baby to have a good strong name like his brothers, Daniel and Logan.  I had given the matter cursory prayer, but had nearly decided to urge my daughter not to name the child Isaac as she had mentioned. The baby's middle name would be Lee, after my father.

I was thinking all this over, and feeling conflicted about it, because I didn't want to be negative or interfering. But I knew I had influence with my daughter and that if she believed I thought her name choice not a good one, that she would probably go with another selection.  An episode of Antiques Road Show was playing in the background as all this was going through my head.  Suddenly, a snippet of dialogue from the program sounded crystal clear, "...cartographer Isaac Lee."

I grabbed the remote, skipped back, and listened again. Back in the 1800's, a man named Isaac Lee had done work on a map they were showing on the Antiques Road Show.  The name "Isaac Lee," as it fell from the narrator's lips, sounded beautiful to me. And this was more than enough impetus for me to keep my maternal mouth shut about my opinion of my daughter's choice in names.

Five months later, Isaac Lee was born, and I now truly do believe he has a beautiful name.

Here's the clincher.  My daughter-in-law was also pregnant at the time. She and my son decided to name their little daughter "Rebekah Ruth."  The middle name is in honor of my mother.  The two couples chose their babies' first and middle names without consulting with one another.

And so we have new babies in our family named "Isaac and Rebekah..." (you'll remember the Biblical account of Isaac and Rebekah) and as if that weren't a cute enough coincidence, their middle names, Lee and Ruth, honor my parents: Robert Lee and Anna Ruth.

Little miracles.  May our hearts be open to the ways the Lord desires us to receive reassurance of His active presence in our lives.  

Rebekah and Isaac