Lorraine was telling me this week that she took a quiz to see how we were doing with our carbon footprint. We came out with a remarkably low carbon footprint considering we hardly think about that kind of thing.

When we drive to work together, it’s not a statement on global warming. It’s a statement about our employment: We work at the same place, more or less the same hours. Plus, I’m cheap. One used car means no car payments and low insurance rates.

On the way to work each morning, we read theFace to Facedevotional by Ken Boa and pray with each other. Sometimes when we are driving and praying, we see evidence of God’s amazing handiwork. It’s often in the sky—the sun, the clouds, God rays showering down. Sometimes it’s the brilliant yellows, golds and reds shimmering in the trees. Look quick before they’re gone.

Not infrequently I have to ask her, “What was that Scripture you just read?” Sometimes I’m thinking about the day ahead or the slow traffic, or I’m anticipating an appointment or a task before me. Will the color copier work? Will the person I’m scheduled to meet with and share from the heart show up for real? Thinking about the day easily gets in the way of thinking about God.

Seeing the wonder of natural revelation, seeing God answering a prayer in my devotional life, I do my share of looking. But much of life involves that which is not seen. Considering all that God is doing every moment of every day, he is remarkably low key.

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. John 5:13b

I know there are theological reasons why Jesus slipped away unnoticed after the miracle, but it seems to me that God goes unnoticed. He slips away into and out of my crowded day or my drive to work. At the same time, Jesus came to make himself known, not to hide.

But how many times every day does God do something miraculous and amazing, or small and intimate in his care for his creation, yet we don’t realize it?

I like to search out Christian perspectives in secular media sources. Recently I came across an article Atlantic Monthly published by C.S. Lewis (in 1959) called “The Efficacy of Prayer.” In it, Lewis says, “Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows himself to us. That he answers prayers is a corollary — not necessarily the most important one — from that revelation. What He does is learned from what He is.”

How much do we miss when we focus on petitions. I think it's not God who hides, but me. All the needs and requests, like people crowding around Jesus to the point where the crowd overtakes him and they're all we can see. Maybe we couldn’t bear much of that knowledge of God. But we could do better. I can do better. I wonder if we petition in our prayers so much because we don’t slow down and consider who it is we’re talking to when we pray. I think of my brothers and sisters in Nigeria and Indonesia and Singapore and Ukraine and Russia and Turkey—Christ with them all in their situations, the same as me as we drive down Main Street toward Seminary Avenue.

Maybe we should cultivate a greater awareness of God at work in day-to-day life and even and especially in our prayers. Be on the lookout, I sometimes remind myself. If you look for God, you’ll find him. He may be humble, but he’s not hiding.

There is a sense of wonder when we dare to see God at work today. He just shows himself. Someone does something that only God could know is just right. When I am surprised, which happens most every time, I suddenly realize he’s done something, “What was that Scripture you just read?” Scripture I've read many times suddenly becomes clear in a new way. A stranger does something unexpected or things happen in a way that just seems obviously engineered and I can almost hear him laugh. It’s a gentle laugh, loving and self-assuring toward me—the sometimes wayward one who wants to know what’s next but enjoys being surprised by something different and better than I could imagine on my own.

The Father, maker of so much that dazzles and even more that seems ordinary at the same time. The Son, who is our advocate always and especially when we don’t deserve it, which is always. The Spirit, so close, so caring, delighting with presence through people or silence or Scripture, the one who laughs..

Remarkably, this relational Father/Son/Spirit, invites us in and often unwittingly uses us as agents of God’s work, carriers of grace, messengers of hope. Wow.

So how will your Saturday be today?