The art of noticing!

There are things that I notice. For instance, I noticed on my daily exercise run yesterday that I achieved a new record! Thanks! Felt good about it myself too (especially since it felt a bit more like hard work than it should have done). Actually, I worked out that if I keep improving at the rate I did from run four to run five (a 15 second improvement since you asked), there will come a time when I don’t have to run because I’ll finish as I start. And then, remarkably I’ll finish before I start! Yes, I know…Anyway, I noticed the time and I held my arm out so that as Lisa opened the door to let me back in the house, she too could share my joy! But…I’m not always good at noticing. I’m actually embarrassed to tell you this, but sadly it’s true. I had to pop to the post office the other day and as I was leaving I spotted the liquorice allsorts. There’s a story behind it but It was entirely appropriate that I purchased a bag (for someone else you understand). I went to pay and realise there was no-one behind the counter and you had to pay at the self service pay machine. So I walked up and began the purchase. Only then did I realise there was an elderly gentleman waiting patiently to pay for his goods. And I only realised because he answered the person who asked him if the was in the queue! I hadn’t even seen him. I hadn’t even looked. I simply hadn’t noticed anyone else was waiting to use the machine. I was, as you can imagine, highly embarrassed. He was very kind and made a joke of it, telling me that the purchase of liquorice allsorts was a very important purchase! Thanks! There’s a story in Mark (5 v 21-43) where a woman in a crowd reaches out to touch Jesus’ robe. In the press of the crowd, it would have been easy for Jesus to miss it. But he didn’t. He asked who had touched him and didn’t let it go until he got an answer (despite the protestations of the disciples). In that moment, a suffering woman had her life transformed. God it seems, unlike me is in the business of noticing. And the business of transforming lives. Got me thinking. What if I was able to cultivate the art of noticing in this challenging time, when there is so much need and so many questions. How might God be able to use a simple move towards someone? An offer of help? A question: how are you? A phone call. An email. A WhatsApp message. An act of kindness. Maybe that’s enough for God. Just someone noticing. It was for a suffering woman. Why not others?