{onions}

This morning, as I was stepping into the shower, an overpowering smell hit my nostrils. I couldn't quite place it, but it wasn't something you want to smell in the shower.

Sure, I hadn't washed my hair yesterday but certainly it couldn't be me.

Yeah, the tub surround could use a good cleaning, but it wasn't anything you would see as a "before" on a kaboom commercial.

Where the heck was that foul odor coming from? I went through my entire shower convinced that it was something in the water. We had a pretty crazy storm overnight and my imagination led me to believe that a water main had broken, leaving our water contaminated with something that would surely leave me deformed in some way, or at least glowing from the nuclear waste I had just bathed in.

Then, as I turned off the water, grabbed my towel, and dried off my face, I realized that my towel had the same awful odor. (insert gag reflex here). It finally hit me...

The hubs had made chili for dinner last night. And whenever he makes chili, he begins by sauteing an onion. I don't know about anyone else, but I just love the smell of onion cooking. However, the stale smell of onion cooking that has seeped into your shower curtain and towel 12 hours later?

Not so much.

I was at least relieved to know that I hadn't somehow damaged myself for life from drinking contaminated shower water.

The point to this seemingly pointless story is something I realized as I was drying off with that stinky towel. Just like that onion smell permeated everything around it, so does God's presence in our lives.

He is EVERYWHERE.

Not just when we pray, or sit in church, or sit in a hospital next to a dying loved on.

He was in the orange leaves that were falling through the sky as I drove through the park on my way to work today. He was in the check that finally arrived in a friend's mailbox, making it possible for her and her husband to pay their mortgage this month. He is in the eyes of my son as I read him the same book for the 50th time (you parents know that song and dance) and He is in my fingers as I type an email to my mother-in-law, encouraging her after a few rough days. He is in each and every second we breathe, and all we have to do is look around to appreciate Him.

I have found myself to the point of tears lately as I realize this absolute truth of life, and I am very grateful.