painted heart

I went running this morning - just a couple miles through the old neighborwood. And there, on the sidewalk, a sidewalk I've walked, skated and biked on for sixteen years, was this . . .


Maybe it's new to the area, but . . . maybe I just never noticed it before.

I've been in a different headspace and heartspace these last couple months and I'm finding more and more that there are tons of little signs and moments and interactions God wants us to see and have that we totally miss when we're caught up in Life. See, it's easier to find or recognize these things when we're searching for something. Searching for truth, answers, love, validation, security, our road map to life (where the heck do I find that one?! =). So I've been searching a lot. And finding a lot. And it's not always the things we want to find. But it's the things God knows we need to find.

He encourages. He inspires. He comforts. He speaks through things that are easy to miss.

I stopped at the park for a drink from the fountain and saw a man taking a walk with his dog. And his parrot. =) Now I didn't get some specific message from this, but God put me there at that moment (not a moment too soon or too late) to see this guy with his dog and his bird. And He knew seeing that would make me smile and think of Him. It made me think that the answers I'm searching for . . . maybe they won't look like what I expect. Maybe I've been looking for something that fits "in the box." Open your eyes a little wider.

Later, I saw a mom pushing an empty stroller, her two little kids running ahead to something that had them excited. The little boy reached the opening of a drain pipe in someone's yard that was buried under a bulge in the lawn, much like the doorway to a hobbit hole, and he began calling into it, "HOBBIT? HOBBIT?" The sister joined him with enthusiasm. The mom noticed me passing by and smiled, both of us delighted by the kids' blissful ignorance. And I thought of how we're so often like those kids to God, thinking or believing something ridiculous and needing His gentle explanation (with a delighted smile) to bring us to a place of true understanding of the world, of life, of who He is.

And that painted heart? I really needed that. Thank you. =)

He's speaking to us! Listen for it. Be awake to it.