My double-shot latte hits the spot. The delicate choux pastry perfectly balances the dark roast coffee. I am at a neighbourhood coffee shop. Conversations buzz around me. Worship music plays at just the right volume on the speakers. I could hang out here for a while. I am home.
I have never considered how one might experience intimacy with God at a coffee shop. Yet here I am, wrapped in a sense of contentment. My heart spills over with gratitude to God for the present moment. The challenges of this season of my life are not behind me. They probably never will be. Yet, this moment is enough to make me acknowledge that God is good. I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving.
When it comes to listing ways to experience closeness to God, I am a traditionalist. The disciplines that I was taught back at Sunday School still hold good. The old song they taught us went, “Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, and you’ll grow, grow, grow.” I respond, “Amen.” Without question, Scripture and prayer remain the staples of our spiritual diets.
Yet God chooses a myriad of different ways to draw us into his indescribable presence. He fashions each of us uniquely and gives us distinctive ways to commune with him. Through Scripture, God speaks and satiates our spiritual needs. Yet, the Bible also directs our gaze to created things and experiences that declare the glory of God. It compels us to look up because, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps 19:1).
There is no possible way to capture how an all-powerful, infinitely creative, wonder-working God might speak to us. But let us dive into some often-overlooked ways we might commune with our Creator.
Enjoying God Through Nature
As Christians, we ought to steer clear of spiritual pathways that equate nature with God, or God with nature. But in rightly negating agnostic ideas of nature worship, have we neglected to see the beauty of God in nature?
God chooses a myriad different ways draw us into his indescribable presence
Our hearts soar as we stand before the vividly blue ocean or as we catch glimpses of the orange-pink sunset. But do we turn those moments that capture our hearts into worship?
God’s Word directs us to, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.“ (Is 40:26).
We commune with a powerful God who set the luminous stars in place and who created ladybugs with precisely seven oval spots on their backs. The vastness and intricacy of creation sings of his glory. May we join this hymn of praise (Ps. 96:11-12).
Appreciating God Through a Good Meal
One of our friends enjoys treating people to meals at restaurants or around his table at home. As we dig into the spread, this older gentleman often remarks: “Friends, this is indeed a taste of heaven!” I believe his words ring true.
While gluttony and over-indulgence are unbecoming of Christ-followers, mindful eating that appreciates the ingredients, the flavours, and the love which goes into creating a dish, draws us toward God. It is communion with God that goes beyond a perfunctory grace that we hastily mumble before dinner (1 Cor. 10:31).
A child’s perspective gives us a different lens to view God and his creation.
However simple a meal might be, it is a moment to acknowledge a God who provides, a God who blesses us with a sense of taste, and a God who teaches us to slow down and nourish our bodies.
He is a God who creates textures of crunchy and soft, and flavours of bitter and sweet, tangy and mild, and the thousands of other nuances of food. He did not need to give us a sense of taste. But, in his kindness, he did! The next time we sit down to a meal, can we pause to praise this extraordinary God?
Experiencing God Through the Eyes of Children
Little children are the least cynical travellers on the journey of life. They are curious, expressive, authentic, and often plain awestruck. When we see unfiltered wonder in a child’s eyes for seemingly mundane things like puddles after the rain or a smooth pebble, we cannot help but share in that delight.
When my children were toddlers, I remember they presented me with a bouquet of weeds, with great fanfare. That still dates as one of the most precious gifts I have ever received. It was a gift that would have been unnoticed had my kids not drawn my attention to it.
A child’s perspective gives us a different lens to view God and his creation. We learn to be enchanted by the little things. We learn to be unhurried. In observing a child’s unbridled joy, may we grow in our own sense of delighting in God.
Communing with God as We Move Our Bodies
This is not a point I would have previously considered in an article about enjoying God. But as I get older, I am more appreciative that I am “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:14).
My morning walks foster an appreciation for the breath in my lungs and for the ability to move. It is a moment to acknowledge God’s mercies and to appreciate that his Spirit indwells our bodies.
I recently read a post by a social media influencer-doctor who encouraged his followers with this affirmation: “I exercise to honour my body’s strength.” As Christians, however, we exercise to honour God who formed us and to whom we belong. As the apostle Paul reminds us: “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
There is something worshipful about training our bodies because we recognise that they belong to God and they are instruments for his service. As we move our bodies, without making an idol out of them, we acknowledge the blessing of health. We get to praise God for the gift of today where we get to live out our purpose of glorifying him.
There is no question that the primary way to meet with God is in the pages of Scripture. But the Word also points to the created world and the wonder around us. In those ordinary moments, we can delight in a brilliantly creative God and say, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28).
