The Morning Unlike Any Other

It didn't start out that way - it was quite ordinary really. The guys were up in the attic bashing about and continuing in the deconstruction of our house. I argued with the alarm a few times and then decided to get up and head to the gym one last time. Nothing new. There were a couple of new faces in the gym but I figured that was about as exciting as it was going to get. I walked out of that door an hour later and headed home.

That's when things got interesting.

I was just walking along, listening to one of my fun songs, minding my own business, and carrying a shoe in each hand. I hate carrying them both in one hand. It just isn't comfortable. Anyway, I get most of the way back when I suddenly hear running behind me. My first thought is that it's some ambitious runner uncomfortable with the lab-rat feel of a work-out room. Can't really say that I blame them. But then there is a flurry of activity about me and my thoughts start racing.....

Move out of the way before you get hit
They slowed down - weird
Someone's touching me
I'm being mugged!!!!!
What do I do????
Arms are around me!!
Augh!!
Wait......
Steph??
Why is she attacking me?
Weirdo
Wait.............
I know that shirt
I know that foot!!!!!!!
"No way........ No way, no way, no way!!!!"

My Nathanael was holding me. A whole day early. So much earlier than I had ever suspected. He was there. With me. Holding me.

Wisdom from a chocolate wrapper

I just got back to the office after a week long vacation and I found a lovely present from my co-workers ...... they tinfoiled my entire desk and everything on it. I mean everything. Each little pen in the cup, my teddy bear, all of the papers, even the returned mail that I have to deal with. Everything! It took me a half hour to unwrap everything and straighten the place up.

They did leave me a nice present though. I had a little Dove chocolate sitting in my chair, just waiting to be unwrapped and eaten. Raspberry filled too!! And since it was a Dove chocolate, it was not only delicious, it had something to say ........

"Every connection has the potential to change your life."

Smart little wrapper that one.

But then I thought about it. Is that really true? Does my life really change with each person that I meet, each situation that I find myself in or put myself into? I'm not entirely convinced that's true. In fact, I'm much more convinced that it is in fact untrue.

My God is sovereign. He knows what he's doing and he's got me going somewhere. It's not a mystery to him, just to me. If each of my connections had that much power over me and my life, that seems to say that God does not. Now how does that work out? It doesn't really which leaves me with this thought .........

"Every connection has the potential to change the path that you think your life is taking."

They don't actually change your life, they just change your perception of your life. I never in my whole life thought that my future would be looking the way that it does. It never once crossed my mind. But how could it? I put my plans into place based on what I had at my fingertips at the time. How was I to know that Nathanael was out there? How was I to know that MasterWorks existed? How was I to know that our paths would cross there when I had never even heard of Winona Lake?

But it all happened. And the only people that it surprised were the two of us. God knew. He watched it happen. He made it happen. He put the connections there. And he'll keep putting them there.

I think Dove got it wrong.