The history most of us learn in school takes us from war to war, from conqueror to king, and shows us how governments and empires rise and fall. It is an important narrative, but it is generally told from the point of view of the privileged victors. To trace the hand of God in history is to understand the events of the past in very different terms. It is to consider the great mystery of creation and forgiveness, intervention, and loving provision that continues in all that grow and die, mutate, and emerge and blossom and erupt—to recognize the Source of all human achievement without whom there would be nothing.

When the psalmist prays, “May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children” (niv), perhaps the psalmist is asking God to open our eyes to see more truly those things we think we know. It takes trained, prayerful awareness to recognize the thread of grace in failure, suffering, and tedium. Quakers learn to ask what is “of God” in any event they encounter. A pastor I know asks himself in any new situation what God may be “up to.” My spiritual director has taught me to watch expectantly each day for what comes from God for learning and healing.

Though I still fret about my frustrations, I have found that when I watch for God and remember that God is “more present than we think,” I more often recognize God’s surprising deeds for what they are. As we learn to practice the presence of God in this way, it may be that our children will grow more readily aware of the splendor that lovingly abounds in the light and darkness that enfolds us.