“It’s a God thing.”

I’m not sure when I first started hearing (or using) this phrase. It’s been years. Maybe you’ve said it, too.

Something happens that causes you to step back in amazement. It’s something you never saw coming – a seemingly chance encounter, a culmination of circumstances, a case of being at the right place at the right time – and you are caught in a moment of wonder. The only way to explain what just happened was to attribute it to God, so you say:

“I don’t know any other way to explain it. It was a God thing.”

But in my own usage of the phrase, I wonder… When was the last time I said it about the sun coming up in the morning? When was the last time I took a breath, and then uttered, “That was a God thing?” When was the last time I reflected on the fact that I was dead, in my transgressions and sins, and yet God reached into my chest and gave me a new heart? When was the last time I experienced the forgiveness of my wife, the unconditional trust of my children, a brief cloudburst of rain, a squirrel running across the ground, or pretty much anything else and said in response:

“That was a God thing.”

You see the problem? Our use of the phrase exposes something deep within us – namely, that we have cornered God into the “big” areas of life. No doubt He’s responsible for those things, but there’s also no doubt that He’s equally as involved in the small, even so small as a bird falling from the sky.

The problem with saying it is that everything is a God thing. Everything. In fact, I’m coming to see more and more that our desire for the sensational in life is a huge barrier to embracing the fullness of the work of Christ in and through us.

So try something with me. Breathe in. Now breathe out.

That was a God thing.