When the Marvelous Becomes Commonplace

That first bald eagle we spotted after landing in Alaska sent us rapidly rummaging for our cameras. We clicked away, capturing every angle and not wanting to miss a shot. We'd stopped walking, the whole family standing on the sidewalk gaping and capturing the moment. Eventually it swooped away, and we recommenced our journey.

Then, we saw another bald eagle! We hurried for those cameras, marveling at our luck-- two bald eagles, in one day.

It did not take long for us to realize that bald eagles are not as rare in Alaska as they are in Illinois. After just a few days we could pick out the newly-arrived tourists, gawking at those overhead eagles. But, more experienced, we didn't do that anymore. After just a couple days we had stopped pointing them out. We expected to see them, and hardly reacted when we did.

Those first times God answers our prayers, we marvel. We excitedly write about it, and tell people about it. But as we get more accustomed to meeting with God and seeing Him intervene in our lives we begin to take Him for granted. Sometimes we even fail to see Him working at all because we're so used to it.

There is a balance in praying in faith, without doubt, expecting God to answer, and worshiping him in reverent wonder when he does. But it is an important balance, one that we ought to pray that God cultivate in us as we take intentional steps (like keeping a prayer journal, and sharing answers to prayer with friends and family) to make sure this marvelous intervention on God's part never seems commonplace.