How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!Psalm 139:17

 I was upstairs changing the linens on our bed. Dan helped me stretch the corners of the king fitted sheet, a task I used to be able to do pretty easily alone,  but since my “golden years” back doesn’t like  bending ,  tugging and stretching very much,  it’s become a two person job.  By habit, I snapped  two pillowcases  in the air,  smoothed them  and deftly inserted the pillows. Dan had  more difficulty. He smooshed  his pillows into the cases  sleeping bag style ending up with lumpy shaped  bolsters.  I watched him and said nothing knowing I’d fix them  afterwards. A  thought  popped into my head.  

“I wonder,” I said to him across the crisply made  bed,  “how many pillowcases  and pillowcases I’ve  put  together in my  lifetime. ? ” Dan   gave me a baffled  look.  “I wonder how many in our 50 plus years together?”

Curious minds want to know. I made some calculations averaging  50+  years at twice a month  linen changes  time 4 pillows. “It’s 5,200…   not counting when the kids were young or when we have guests or when we weren’t home.”  Dan failed to appreciate my interesting math.  I then  group texted daughters, son, and brother with the amazing revelation. Eldest daughter responded, “Uhhh, you ok, Mom?” I am more than OK.

We go about our daily lives doing the mundane, ordinary business at hand without a second thought until something grabs our attention.  In this season of life I’m mostly at home and yesterday it was freshening the pillows, but it could be a million other small tasks or motions which I’m not conscious of doing and forget almost immediately: opening the fridge, climbing stairs, reading e-mails,  getting in and out of the car, preparing meals, etc., etc. . The  et cetra’s  fill up a lifetime until one day, a thought barges in.: How much time do I…?

The Greek philosopher Socrates wrote that “ the unexamined life is not worth living.” He may have been  referring to what’s  called mindfulness, being present to the life I live. Brother Lawrence saw it a little differently, as practicing the presence of God  in all things because for him God is in the details,   in the scullery  as well as the chapel.

I had another thought. God’s Presence by Holy Spirit is not constrained by time or space,

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”Ex. 33:4

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? Psalm. 139:7

 …and therefore God is/was  nigh with every breath I’ve taken;   He was with me  each of those 5,200 pillow changing times. I have 5,200 reasons to thank God  for sharing His  loving Presence with me while I was simply  doing an ordinary chore. That’s just a drop in the ocean of the Almighty One  hanging around my heart.  I cannot fathom the full measure of  all those moments which I thought were drudgery and  the Lord was right there with me.

The next time I make the bed or the tenth time I’m  interrupted  by my spouse or the hundredth time my prayers seem  flat and the thousandth time  my life   today is no different than it was yesterday,  I thank God that  it is He, not I,  doing the higher math for me.