2025 was full of surprises for me. By the grace of the Lord, I came to realize that more often than I remembered, He had been present in my life throughout the year, through my family and friends, prayer and adoration, and even through missions. These are moments I will always treasure and keep in my heart.
However, it was not always easy for me to recognize the goodness of the Lord in my life. I often became so caught up in my daily tasks that I forgot to pause and look back at the moments when He revealed Himself. Looking back, I realized that even in the smallest details, the Lord had been present.
One particular mission last year made this especially clear to me. I was bound for Tarlac and on my way to the bus station when I realized that my phone was about to run out of battery. At the time, I was not able to bring a powerbank, making it impossible for me to have any other way of getting my phone charged. I didn’t consider staying in a convenience store to get my phone charged because it would take a while and it might cause me to arrive late.
I needed my phone because if the battery died, I would have no way to communicate with the servants I was supposed to meet. With no other option, I prayed that my remaining 5% battery would last the three-hour bus ride. That was when the Lord came in. When I boarded the bus, I discovered that it had charging ports. I was able to charge my phone, stay connected, and coordinate with the people I needed to reach for the mission.
It took a while, but that was the moment when I realized that I needed to center my life on Christ. Without doing so, I might end up forgetting moments like these – moments that are mundane and coincidental to others but in reality, are moments where the love of Christ becomes all the more real. I knew then that I would never want a life separate from Christ because I couldn’t imagine being loved and held the way God does and not recognize it. It would probably leave an insatiable longing in my heart.
Since then, I have learned to intentionally seek the Lord throughout my day. Certainly, I will treasure and keep all of these in my heart, because if the Lord loves and holds me the way He does, I wouldn’t want every moment to pass by without recognizing it.
