LIttle Reminders

Malachi 3:6a “For I, the Lord, do not change;

Once in a while we need a little reminder that God is still in charge, still loves us, and will see us through whatever valley of life is consuming us at the moment.  Wednesday AM must have been one of those moments.  To set it up, Reja and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary by driving Mom to Birmingham to have a heart catheterization.  Mom's check in and procedure had gone extremely well and I was very thankful and of course our church overwhelmed us with calls, texts, and posts of support and concern.  There were hundreds of people praying and I had a calm assurance about the whole medical issue.  It should have been enough to simply have the opportunity to be together all day on our anniversary, but I couldn't help the feeling of inadequacy with the simple card I had stashed in my backpack to celebrate the occasion.  I should have called ahead and ordered flowers, or arranged a special dinner, or something to mark such an incredible milestone.  In addition to feelings of inadequacy regarding our anniversary, I was missing a lot of key meetings and taskers at work. I tried to use the time in the waiting room to keep up, but I had mixed emotions as I sat glued to my laptop that I wasn't being good company.  Worse, there was maddening bafoonery going on at the office and I really needed to get a couple of senior leaders together, bang them on the head and invite them in a not-so-politely way to grow up and contribute in a measurable way to our nations defense. 
So as Reja and I sat at breakfast Wednesday morning, I simply felt pulled in one too many directions at that moment.  Sort of an "I'm completely incompetent to even draw breath today" kind of feeling as I felt like I was trying to do too much and not getting any of it correct.  As we finished a sweet lady walked up with a cheery "good morning" as she reached to clear our breakfast plates.  For the mood I was in, that should have been more than enough words, but this woman wasn't going to quit.  She was from Birmingham and was going to fulfill her southern bell role by striking up a genteel conversation over bussing a table.  She asked what brought us to Birmingham thinking it was some sort of high-profile business or maybe a simple vacation.  When Reja shared that we had come with Mom for a medical procedure, she immediately offered to pray for her and inquired as to Mom's first name. 
That moment struck me more heavily than if Ryan had punched me in the arm.  God sent her to remind me that there was no place or situation I could go that escaped His reach.  Again, our church had bowled us over with contact inquiring about Mom, but something about a complete stranger approaching us brought a clear message from God.  Perhaps I expected the support from our church, but when this lady approached on the worldly mission of bussing a table, she didn't let that worldly job stop her from being on a heavenly mission. 
I'm thankful that God doesn't change, that we can't evade or over-extend His reach.  I'm thankful that He can use complete strangers to remind us that He is still in charge, circumstances do not dictate His love or His work, and that He can act in consistency with Himself at any point He deems it necessary.  He also reminded me that in all my worldly work and roles, my first and foremost calling is to be about His business.