To Have Us Meet.

Earlier in the summer I took my nieces and nephew to one of those town festivals. You know the ones. With the rides and the cotton candy and the public displays of parenthood and the thousands of people in too small a space that pushes me to the brink of being a hot mess. Yeah, that one.

The ones where the big sister loves it, the little sister is terrified, and the baby boy thinks the carousel deserves a thumbs up.

Waiting their precious turn. You can see the fear creeping in on the blond one.

Said Fear in the blond one.

Which of these is faking a good time?! Bahah!

What a ham.

 

It’s great fun for the wee ones. Until someone has a melt-down. Which, is usually me.

And then my 6 year old niece has to take me by the hand and lead me to the car and tell me we all need to go home now.

Ha.

Not really.

 But that would be hysterical.

Anyway, so these things are prime real estate if you are in the market for people-watching the masses and being more overstimulated than any human ever should be.

However, something I found incredibly interesting was, despite the fact that you are surrounded by literally THOUSANDS of people in a matter of two blocks, don’t expect to meet anybody. As crazy as it sounds, the odds of you meeting someone at a function like this, apart from being introduced by someone you already know, and actually becoming friends with them are slim to none.

And as I was pondering this while passing out way too much cotton candy to the babies it occurred to me that, really, the odds of meeting anyone anywhere—apart from being introduced—again, are not in your favor. I mean, there are 7 billion people on this planet, and to just “happen” to meet someone who your soul recognizes as a kindred spirit? To have your eyes connect with someone and both of you feel this pull to go talk to them?

No. Way.

As in, if I was a gambling woman, I would never bet on you meeting a stranger in a strange place and becoming the best of friends.

Apart from a miracle, this almost never seems to happen.

*BINGO*LIGHTBULB*

 “Apart from a miracle.”

See, here is the deal: I didn’t meet anyone that day. How is it possible to have thousands of people pass in and out of my line of vision but not make eye contact for more than a split second with any one person?  How was no connection of any kind made? It baffles my mind.

But here is the second deal: I have met complete strangers in completely strange places. And have become the best of friends.
And let me tell you: it was nothing short of a miracle. Because usually I wasn’t even supposed to be there. The reasons why I was in whatever place at whatever time and we happened to meet—I could not replicate again if my life depended on it.

This being said, the longer I am a Christian the more I stop believing in ANYTHING being random; coincidental. I see my life and I see how it works; I see the experiences I have had and how they came to be, I see those relationships I was talking about—the ones that appeared “out of thin air”—and I can’t be anything but amazed. I can’t say anything other than “Jesus did that.” Because truth be told, not only could I not duplicate the situation, I couldn’t have manipulated, persuaded, coerced, finagled, or broken myself into any of those situations in the first place!

And I can manipulate, persuade, coerce, finagle, or break myself in to almost any situation.

But not these. They came from so far out in left field, they blindsided me so entirely that I can do nothing but sit back and say, in the words of Taylor Swift herself, “I never saw you coming.”

Why?

Because meeting people is a miracle. It has to be! It has the signature of Jesus written ALL OVER IT. Because it doesn’t just happen. Not on its own. Being surrounded by thousands of people OR being just you and two other people in a doctor’s waiting room is not conducive to striking up a friendship; this stuff doesn’t just happen.

So—when it does happen…whoa.

That’s the hand of God right there.

For whatever reason, he has gone and gathered you all up from your path of life, and he has collected some stranger from their path of life, both of you walking the path of every “random” thing that happened that day to put you both in exactly the same place at exactly the same time, and for whatever reason, for however long, he literally places you right in front of each other. Or you literally run into each other (this has happened to me).

And your eyes meet.
And there is just something that….clicks.
And you both smile and say “hi.”

 

For whatever reason.

 

A miracle.

Now, some of you are probably thinking I am going to tell you that I “met someone” and our eyes met and we smiled and we swooned and that was the beginning of forever.

But no. That is not why I write this.
Sorry to disappoint.
Nope. I am not speaking of “the one”. But I have met a lot of “someones” and I have a lot of very dear friends, and every time I sit back and think about them, I am driven to amazement and say, “Thank you, Jesus. You did that. If it had been up to me I wouldn’t have even been there; but you orchestrated that and it was brilliant and all I can say is Thank You. Thank you for entering me into a miracle.”

Which, maybe that’s the point.

Maybe—and I think I am onto something—maybe that’s what relationships are about. Or even just meeting someone and the ensuing conversation, that’s what it’s all about: praising him for a miracle.

Having the eyes to see his hand weaving aspects of your life; to accept that he is involved in the details details details of my daily life while carefully crafting the events that will shape my eternity.
Seeing him everywhere does that; it shapes my eternity. Being thankful echoes far beyond this life.

 And I think that’s maybe why he does it. That’s why he works miracles for us. That’s why he interrupts our life sometimes by having a simple hello lead to a million little things.

There is this passage in Acts that is one of my very favorites and it speaks so brilliantly to the topic.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of where they live. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:24-27)

Isn’t that the most nuts thing you have ever heard?

God, the big God who needs nothing human hands can give him, the one who makes all and is Lord of all, NOT ONLY gives everyone their life and breath and everything else, he then goes and marks out the times in history we will be where we are, and decides where we are going to live. Not because he created us as robots, not because we are pieces in his chess game. No.

But so that we would seek him and –perhaps—reach out for him and find him.

Whoa.

Details details details. So that we would seek him. See him. And perhaps be led to reach out to him, even though, and this seems a little redundant to say at this point, he is not far from any one of us.

If your mind didn’t just explode about this, I don’t know what else could pack a punch.

The God of the universe knows exactly where you are. He set up where you should live. He gives you life and breath and everything else. He makes your eyes connect with another and have things just click. He brings the miracle.

So.That.We.Would.Seek.Him.

Love the people in your life, Wolfies. Love the God who brought them there. It didn’t just happen.

It was a miracle.