How to Find What You’re Looking for

When she bustled into the kitchen with a floppy sun hat perched on her head and a wicker basket draped over her arm, I knew she was on a mission.

“I’m going to pick some flowers,” my seven-year-old announced on that long-ago day. “Do you want to come, too?” 

I looked up from my laptop and returned her gap-toothed smile. “Where are you planning to find flowers?” I asked.

“In the woods,” she answered as she slipped on her shoes and moved toward the door.

I pictured the scraggly understory that flanked the trails in our backyard and tried to remember if I’d ever seen a wild flower blooming along that shaded path.

 “Maybe we should look for acorns, instead,” I suggested as I rose to my feet and followed my daughter through the backyard.  

Mo-om,” my daughter said with a dramatic sigh. “You can look for whatever you want, but I’m going on a flower hunt”

And with a giggle, my girl skipped ahead of me into the woods, swinging her empty basket to and fro.

I spied the capacious canopy above our heads and the lush flora at our feet, the vines climbing rugged tree trunks and the emerald tufts of moss dotting the ground. I noticed the slew of brambles and offshoots of weeds, the spongy mushrooms and the dandelions gone to seed. 

But I didn’t spot a single flower.

I kept my doubts to myself as we roamed the winding trail, but I wondered if the bounce in my daughter’s step would eventually disappear if her basket remained empty.  

Eventually, I stopped looking for silky petals or bright blooms and began picking up acorns instead. But my flower hunter continued to saunter with a quiet confidence, her eyes scanning the wooded world around us with humble expectancy.

Then just before we reached the end of the trail and turned back towards home, my daughter raced through the gangly grass and dropped to her knees with a happy squeal.

I hurried to her side and bent down to see what she had found, and there beneath my knees was a beautiful spray of purple wildflowers poking up from the ground

My pockets clanked with acorns as I kneeled beside my girl, and I realized I would have walked right past those beautiful blooms if I’d been wandering the woods alone.

When the wicker basket overflowed with violet beauty and our feet were headed home, I asked the question rattling in my mind. “How did I miss those purple flowers?”

My flower-hunter tipped her chin to meet my gaze and replied with a shrug of her shoulders. “Mommy, you didn’t see the flowers ‘cuz you weren’t looking for them.”

Her words dangled in the air between us, and the acorns in my pocket clanked together to prove my daughter’s rudimental point. Long before we’d passed the patch of purple flowers, I‘d stopped expecting to find any.

Later that night, after I’d put those handpicked blooms in a mason jar and tucked my daughter into bed, I opened my Bible. And there, in the book of Jeremiah, I read a simple promise that sounded strangely like a flower hunter’s wisp of wisdom.

When you come looking for me, you’ll find me…(Jeremiah 29:13)

The simple truth is this:

We often find what we’re looking for.

My daughter knew it, and I’m learning it as well.

If we look for beauty in the midst of our bedlam, we’ll behold it.

If we seek peace in the middle of our pandemonium, we’ll see it.

If we hunt for hope in the middle of our discouragement, we’ll seize it. 

And, according to Jeremiah 29:13, if we earnestly look for God ,we’ll always find Him, too.

“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.“ (The Message)

It’s simple, but significant—Our looking impacts our living.

Maybe that’s why the Apostle Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts will be opened as we follow Jesus (Ephesians 1:17).

Because if we’re not expecting to see God, we just may miss Him.

So, let’s be lookers today, dear friends.

Let’s look for God in the middle of the life we’re living.

Let’s search for His goodness, notice His mercy, and watch for His love.

Let’s find Him in the folds of our ordinary days and refuse to walk right past Him.

Because the God who sees you invites you to see Him, too.

And He’s promised that when we look for Him, we won’t be disappointed.

“Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree. (Jeremiah 29:14, The Message)

Dear friends, thank you for spending time with me today. If you’re new here, welcome! If you’re an old friend, I’m so glad you stopped by again. I don’t know about you, but I long to seek God and find Him each day. But sometimes in the spin and stress of life, I need help shifting my eyes and noticing His presence. You, too?

That’s why I created Encounter. It’s a 31-day devotional resource designed to help you connect with Jesus from the middle of the life you’re actually living. It’s an invitation to turn your faith from a drudgery into a delight. It’s packed with stories and scripture, response questions and creative ways to engage with Jesus long after you close the pages of your Bible. If you’d like to grab a copy for yourself or for a friend, you can find it here.

You can also find the most recent devotion I wrote for Proverbs 31 Ministries here. It’s a story about looking for God’s goodness even when we’re waiting for God’s good. I hope it encourages you today.

If you have time before you go, we’d love to hear how you’ve seen God’s goodness lately. Share in the comments and we’ll all be encouraged to keep looking for Jesus.