I Met God Today

Have you had one of those experiences where it just seems surreal? Mystical, as if time has frozen around you? An experience where you just KNOW? As in knee dropping, humble, stunned awe of God? We go around asking God so many questions, I think we too often believe he is not really going to answer because when he does in a very direct way, we are in shock. I had that tonight.

I was walking downtown tonight after seeing a play thinking to check if my favorite tattoo studio was still open so I could talk to my friend the owner. I was about a block away when I saw the dark windows and figured they had probably closed early as they do sometimes when it’s quiet. The man standing beside me at the crosswalk exchanged smiles with me and we struck up a conversation about where we were coming from. (I often talk to strangers, it’s so much fun.) I told him about the play which had intrigued me and a line in it I had been rolling around like a marble inside my mouth. He asked me what I did [for a living] and I told him several things I do including spiritual direction which intrigued him. That led us into a conversation about spirituality there in the middle of the sidewalk of my favorite part of downtown. We talked about many things: mysticism, attitude, loneliness, love, images of God, and our interconnection with everything around us. It was like meeting a fellow traveler who hears the same music, one of those rare conversations where you go straight to the deeper and higher things in life, where you connect on a soul level. He made some good observations of me and gave me some good advice. I felt like God had sent him. I know this man is human, but tonight, he could have been an angel for he felt like the hand of God reaching out to touch me when He knew I needed it most. As if his desire to touch me on a more physical level was so strong, he sent this man as a glove to speak to the deepest movements in my heart. This man said to keep God around me, stay in acknowledgement of his presence with me, that he could feel the Divine all around me. He said to remember grace, to wear it like I would a coat, to not keep tabs of sin but to remember I am the daughter of God. We are eternal but we are also limited here by space and time and to keep my feet on the ground. He told me to live and take chances. He also said our attitudes are like sweaters, we can choose which ones we wear, sadness, joy, loneliness, it is up to me what I will wear in my life. And the memories we have? The scraps of memory we hold? We don’t remember everything in our lives because we change so much through our journeys and become different people than who we were. He told me to be honest with myself and to be honest with God.

We parted company after some time for our respective destinations: my car and his friends. We both enjoy going to the same coffee shop so I am guessing we will meet again sometime and I suspect, it will be exactly when I need it. So thank you God for being here tonight, for raising your voice, reaching out your touch soI may touch and hear you tonight in a very real way. I love how you fullfill our needs and answer our questions so deeply and so well. I love you with all that I am.