Divine Appointments

 Ever had what seemed like a divine appointment? 

You run into someone you already know randomly and it changes the course of their or your life (or both).

You meet someone randomly and the same thing occurs. 

Or some random stranger comes up to you and says something that you needed to hear.

I’ve had all three of these happen in my life.

Never have thought to ask for one though.

But as I was driving the older three to piano I thought to myself as I was once again just sitting in the “why” of last week and all that went down. I thought to myself “man it would be so nice to hear from God through someone.” To have someone randomly come up to me and tell me something that I know is straight from Him.

Call me crazy but I’ve had this happen at least 2 times in my life. Someone random comes up to me and says “I just felt I was supposed to come say this to you.”

However, I didn’t ask God outrightly for this. I just thought this would just be so sweet. A balm if you will.

Well we had run out of bunny feed, and Josh really didn’t want to try and have to beat the clock after work to get to the store that carries it on time before it closed. So he asked me to go and grab it.

So I pull in and park the van and in slides this car next to me. The woman turns her face toward me and immediately I recognized her.

She had randomly bought some nerf guns from us back when we were in Brayton. Since I didn’t drive I had asked her to meet me at the park. Sometimes you never know what kind of people are buying from you and I didn’t always like them coming to the house, this is why i chose the park. I had loaded up my crew and was waiting  when she got there in her big van and out came a slew of children I thought to myself “this is going to be good.”

Indeed it was! She was ahead of me in her mama journey and it was so good to talk with her. Our children played well and it was a blessing. We had a couple of times of her buying from me and hanging at the park. But then we moved to Adair and I had all but forgotten about rebekah.

But then she just randomly pulls up next to me. She comes over and gives me a long hug. Definitely needed that. Then she proceeds to share with me her own losses. 

And then she shared a story I will probably never forget. She told me that she had these raspberry bushes and that they were producing so well for a couple years but then they just weren’t producing. So she had to go out and prune them. And as she did she found that the branches that had once been so wonderful at producing fruit had now become laden with bugs and worms. They were ugly and as she cut away at them she cried. For her the message of this was that she had carried the weight of her loss from 18 years ago and was still upset and angry with the Lord for it. The message there for her was to prune that out. To prune out those worm and bug ridden unfruitful branches.

When she first began telling the story, I could see the pain in her eyes but I could also see determination to tell this truth and it struck me as she shared that this …this was a message for me just as much as it was for her.

It was a warning to me…to not let my anger and sadness at the situation to turn to bitterness that I carry with me toward God. That’s when the worms would set in and wreak more havoc than I would anticipate. 

Another friend shared with me when I relayed this divine meeting with her that when we get angry at another person we almost always project things onto them that aren’t even true. In our anger suddenly everything they do and are becomes tainted by the anger and suddenly they are no longer the person we saw before.

Everything they do is scrutinized with the eyes of bitterness and suddenly in our eyes they can do nothing right. Then she hit me square when she said sometimes we do this with God😳

She is not wrong.

I’ve been warned.

But secondly I’ve been comforted that this…this loss is not directly from God’s hand. He may have allowed it but He didn’t rip the child from me. He allowed it, and for a reason. Probably many reasons, I mean it is the Omniscient, Eternal Lord. Being such I don’t think He ever has just one thing in mind. But one thing is certain: 

He is pruning me.

Friends, since the loss I’ve sat in some hard places of my life and noticed so many dead branches. Dead branches God is cutting away. Worms that have grown. Areas I’ve let slide. Paths of the mind I’ve just kept going down and spiraling further downward.

I’ve been warned…I’m being pruned. 

Never underestimate the still small voice of God. Obey His gentle promptings. Whether it’s to say something hard to someone, or to go up to a random person and say something or to pray for someone you suddenly and randomly think of. Never underestimate how God might use your obedience. It could literally change a life.