The Missing Tablet

My heart plummeted. Where could the electronic tablet be? I searched the house; top to bottom. Not finding it anywhere, I darted to the car and searched it; front and back. It was nowhere. I was sick. This wasn’t just any tablet – it was Mom’s that I had brought home just last week after we three siblings had gotten together and discussed what to do with some of Mom’s personal belongings following her recent death. I had never owned a tablet and it would be portable, yet less strain on my eyes than reading from the phone. But it wasn’t the loss of the convenience that mattered, it was the fact that it was Mom’s.

After my thorough search, I knew in my “knower” what had happened. I had taken it to Wal-Mart hours earlier to get a cord for it. Placing it flatly into the child’s seat of the cart, I tossed my purse on top of it and off I went to the electronics department where I found the cord I needed. I then hurried on to the grocery department with my mind focused on the list in my hand. I had company coming so grocery shopping took me a bit longer than usual – just enough time for me to forget all about the tablet. When I thought back on it, I could not remember taking it out of the child’s seat when I unloaded the groceries into my vehicle. I was more than put out at myself. And as it was, the Samsung cords were all identical. I wouldn’t have had to take it into the store at all. And now it was gone. Kick, kick, kick. I knew the chances of whoever found it, leaving it at customer service was slim. It seems that those considerate endeavors are less and less prevalent these days. “Finder’s keepers” seems to be more the norm.

Oh how I wished God would show up in a big way. You know…like the parting of the Red Sea, or the burning bush, or maybe in a fiery furnace or like when he called out to Lazarus, dead for four days, and his friend comes forth in his tomb clothes. If only He would drop that tablet into my lap! I love all those miraculous Bible stories, but, I’ve learned, that even though He did and can still do these things, He more often chooses to show up in a gentle whisper (1Kings 19:12) throughout the mundane activities of our daily worlds. I think He’s interested in seeing if we notice Him in the little things.

Maybe it’s because my life has been turned upside down and I have sought Him with a deeper and more needful desire that I’m recognizing Him more than I may have in the past. In the last few months, I have recognized Him in the beautiful prayer shawl a classmate sent to me when she had no idea what I was struggling with and the $50.00 that was slipped into a carton of eggs that I received from a friend. Then there’s the supervisor at the Ford Garage that tore up my ticket and gave me a free car-wash on top of it. There was the stranger at the laundromat that gave me a heart warming personal compliment, the friend that sent me a beautiful refrigerator magnet that touched my heart, and the friends from Missouri that went several hours out of their way to stay a night at my house. Where does God show up? Yes, in all of these things….and yes, at Wal-Mart at the customer service desk where an employee hands me a very missed and used Samsung tablet.

God’s out there, let’s open our eyes and our hearts and see Him.

Until, next month, keep on readin’ and I’ll keep on writin’.