Jesus always shows up

 Here's a fun story.

Last night my husband and I were talking to Clare (12yo) about how Jesus shows up when you pray even if it isn't glaringly apparent at the time. She said that he doesn't always say things to her in prayer and it was hard to know if he's there all the time.  I tried to make it very clear that Jesus always shows up even if all he does is simply sit and be with us.

Sometimes when I do imaginary prayer and sit with Jesus in my favorite spot we just sit.  He doesn't say anything and I don't either.  We just sit in silence and that's wonderful enough.  Other times I find that I hear him saying things almost as clearly as I hear anyone else.  But what I have found in life is that if I make the tiniest effort to reach out for Jesus because I need him, he shows up.

Fast forward to earlier today.  After 8 years of homeschooling and disorganization (ie: papers and craft supplies all over the school room) we lost some flash cards that were part of our language arts set for 2nd grade.  I got irritated and stomped downstairs yelling, "St. Anthony where are the cards??!" 

Then I started rifling through stacks of papers and basically garbage on shelves in the school room getting more and more irritated at the huge mess until I finally blurted out, "demon of disorganization get out of here! Jesus where are the cards?" I had barely finished yelling when the next thing my fingers touched while rifling through a shelf full of paper crap was the 8 cards rubber banded together.

I told Clare, "See? Jesus always shows up even if you're yelling 'Jesus where are the cards?!?!' "