is anything but routine; anything but mundane; anything but dull! He keeps us on our toes. One of my new favorite things to do is watch Ezekiel discover. What it must be like (because the Lord knows I don’t remember) to discover everything for the first time! 

As we drive to school in the morning, I watch him in the mirrors as he gazes out the window, his eyes moving curiously about, trying to take in the world as it flies by. And today, as we took his Labrador out for a walk to see the Autumn colors, Ezekiel stared out of his stroller up into the trees and the sky, taking in all of the new colors and scents of the imminent season of Fall. Ezekiel has never seen Fall. He has never smelled it. How brilliant it must be to introduced to such a beautiful thing for the very first time!

I’ve begun teaching the Cubbies (3 & 4 Year olds) in our Awana program at church. They are learning about God’s love through creation (A perfect place to start!) and the lessons may be blessing me even more than them. Last night they learned about God’s creation of plants. I wanted to teach them about how God blesses us with plants for beauty and consumption (I used a smaller word for them 😉 I brought in different fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and flowers. As they discover God through the creation of the earth, I get to discover God on a deeper level through how He has created children. I teach the 3 year olds and 4 year olds separately, and I love to see the vast difference between the two groups, even though only a year difference in age stands between them.

I asked for a couple of volunteers in each group to come and smell a certain plant product I had brought with in a tupperware. The 4 year olds were stumped. The 3 year olds, however, knew it straight away:  Coffee!!!  When I brought out the flowers, the 4 year olds sat quietly on the floor watching and listening as I explained the colors and shapes. When I brought out the flowers for the 3 year olds, I was immediately charged by a crew of curious little eyes and noses wanting a closer look and big whif of the beautiful plants!

I want to be that eager to discover. Just as I’m teaching these little ones every week, I want to stand in awe of God’s creation, taking in more of Him and His love through it.

^“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

“Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” Romans 1:19-20

My aunt recently gave me my grandmother’s bread machine. And I have to ask myself–how have I lived 21 years without such a contraption?!?! Needless to say, we’ve been eating a lot of bread this week.

Of course, I was drawn to a recipe for “Coffee Spice Bread” to start with. It called for 2/3 cup of brewed coffee. I opted for 2/3 cup of brewed espresso.