The little things

Sushi, the family dog, and I had been allocated the spare room upstairs since half the family had come down from Port Elizabeth to look after her, Fruity, Jolie and Tinkie when we leave for our trip. So when my dad decided to start playing London Calling by The Clash on full volume in the kitchen, located directly beneath my bed, Sushi and I were less than impressed. He then moved on to the soundtrack of London's popular musical Billy Elliot. At this point, Sushi popped her head up, gave me a look, and proceeded to get out of her bed...I guess that was my cue. Although our flight was only in 5 hours time, my dad was clearly excited.

Today, we arrived in Heathrow at 5:07am and got to our hotel at 11:30. Having only managed an hour's sleep on the plane, most of our sense of humours had disappeared. What kept me up for most of the night had a lot to do with the itchy blanket and the confined space, but my mind also could not switch off. All I kept thinking was, "how am I going to write about a Godly experience every single day for the next three weeks?" God is miraculous, that I know, but I suddenly starting feeling a lot of pressure to write something miraculous every day. If God wanted to he could show us a massive sign everyday like a universal snow storm or shower us with pink bubblegum-flavoured rain, but he doesn't do that for a reason. We walk by faith and not by sight. But I still felt a need to impress or make God sound "cool". 

After today, I realised that that was not the "Godly" thing to do. I was expecting something from God just so that my blog would sound amazing by worldly expectations. Maybe God will show me something out-of-this-world tomorrow, but what I view as small or taken-for-granted is still a gift from Him....maybe learning that was my something amazing. 

After arriving at the hotel, we sat down for a family lunch. It was at this point that God started showing me these things...or maybe He just opened my eyes to what had been happening all day. Like the little bit of pride I felt when we held hands in the bar and said grace publicly before eating, or how my sisters and I laughed together while mocking the Barry Roux parody of Happy by Pharrell, or the fact that my dad had tears in his eyes yesterday morning while he was playing his music. But most of all, God showed me the best gift that he has ever given me, my close-knit family. We suffered together last year, but we grew immensely closer. This holiday alone would increase that greatly. After dinner, we all shared a late night swim at the hotel since the sun had not yet begun to set, something perhaps trivial to us, but all a part of God's favour. I look forward to more of that.