Don’t Miss A Thing

If you follow Stewart or me on Facebook, you probably saw that our family took our first ever spring break vacation to Arizona. We have never traveled over spring break, but after 2020 cancelled all our trips,  Stewart insisted that we take the opportunity and get away. He was not wrong. It was most certainly the right decision!

As always, I was anxious about going on this trip with Evan. First, we were flying and not driving. Evan has not flown since he was a little over a year old. That was before seizures and before the wheelchair. Also, the shear amount of stuff that he requires to travel - diapers, wipes, medicines, emergency medicines, extra clothing, etc. - is quite overwhelming. He had a suitcase all to himself and a backpack that was full of all the necessities to carry on the plane and go on outings. Sleeping away from home is hard for Evan. He literally sleeps all over the bed in all kinds of positions. Someone had to sleep with him just because of the logistics of the trip, but that is never fun for the person who gets that job. (It ended up being me most of the trip!) And then there’s the fact that he really doesn’t notice or care about anything - unless he really notices or cares about something. Buying gifts for Evan is already hard because he rarely takes to anything new. Why would he want to look at petrified trees or sand that was different colors? 

To make matters worse, just the week before, Evan had a not-so-hot check up at Texas Children’s Hospital that left us discouraged and a little confused about what the future holds for him. Evan’s IEP had also been the week before, and it was not any better. I was somewhat on the downhearted side as far as all things Evan. I didn’t have very high expectations for the trip.

But our God is in the habit of exceeding our expectations.

On our plane ride from Houston to Phoenix, Evan crawled in my lap. I was sitting by the window, and it was a sunny day with clear skies. In very un-Evan like fashion, he pressed his face against the window and looked at the clouds. We could not believe it!

From the first day of our trip, we noticed that when we were driving, Evan was looking out the window with wonder in his eyes. That is not normal. When we drive around our hometown, he does not do that. (I guess he’s seen it all before!) He would look at us and smile big when we would point out the sights such as snow on the ground or the big cacti. He stared at the mountains. He watched every single thing that went by. And we were delighted.

Evan didn’t particularly like the windy places like the Petrified Forest or the Painted Desert. But he did cooperate for pictures, which is a minor miracle in itself.

However, the greatest moment of the whole trip for me happened at the Grand Canyon. Because of COVID, only the South Rim is open at this time. As you can imagine, it was extremely busy with other spring breakers like us who wanted to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The South Rim has a paved trail, so we walked and rolled on it and marveled at every single view. I had been to the Grand Canyon as a child, but seeing it as an adult opened my eyes to how big our God is. Seeing Zach want to climb on every rock he could reach without hurting himself scared me but thrilled me. He understood that this stop on the trip was so important, and he needed to take it in.

Yet again though, I figured Evan didn’t get it. I didn’t think he was seeing it. I didn’t think he had noticed the majesty all around him.

Yet again, I was wrong.

At one point, my asthma (Yes, I now have asthma. Another story for another day.) was flaring up, so when we passed a bench, I sat down with Evan right by me. Stewart and Zach continued on down the trail. People were passing in front of us, but we had a pretty clear view of another section of the canyon. Evan looked at me and then looked back at the Grand Canyon and gestured toward it as if to say, “Mommy, do you see this?” I said to him, “Yes, I see. Isn’t it beautiful? God made that just for you!” And then right there, I softly sang to him:

Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made...

I sang the rest of the first verse and chorus of “How Great Thou Art” with Evan grinning from ear to ear. He got it. Somehow he understood that this place was special, and he needed to notice it. 

I never want to forget that moment. I never want to take for granted the things all around me that I may be missing. With all my anxiety about this trip, with all the “stuff” beforehand, I could have missed this priceless moment.

Look around you. What are you missing? There are wonders and miracles that you may not even see that God is doing at this very moment. Slow down. Take it in. Don’t miss it.