Last week I had two interesting early morning encounters, one to do with the plan of God for the whole of creation the other to do with his plan for each individual’s life.
Once a month I drive to the spring at Eden Prairie to fill our 10 x 5 gallon containers with water. Because I go at dawn there is usually no one else there, but last week, as I was halfway through filling the jugs another car pulled up and a lady got out. She was anxious that she would be late for work and so I happily offered for her to go ahead first. Furthermore seeing they were also 5 gallon containers I helped her load them back into her car. She was most grateful. As we paused to say farewell I noticed she was rather attractive, and discovered her name was Darlene, meaning ‘darling’. She began to drive off but then paused unexpectedly so that I also noticed the make of her car: It was a Soul.
As I pondered this on the way home I sensed Father was speaking to me again of The Big Story and it’s ‘shadow’ in the episode of Jacob encountering Rachel at the well and helping her get water for her father’s sheep by rolling the stone away. Jacob noticed how ‘beautiful’ she was but was deceived by Laban into marrying Leah before he could then obtain his darling Rachel as his bride.
Both Leah and Rachel were lawfully married to Jacob, but their relationship was different. Leah had a legal relationship with Jacob; her marriage was largely on paper. Rachel had a love relationship with Jacob. This was similar to how Hagar had an Old Covenant relationship with Abraham whereas Sarah had a New Covenant relationship, which is why Paul exhorts the Galatians to ‘cast out the bondwoman.’
God wants a new covenant, grace based, love relationship with us, his bride……his Soul mate!
A few mornings later I set out for an early morning run. At the corner of our street I noticed a Cardinal (bird that is!) perched atop a lamppost singing his heart out. I took my usual route through the forest and was about to turn right as always when I heard again the full throated song of a Cardinal to my left. So left I turned, along a path I had never run before! A few moments later I encountered a man walking. As he stepped aside to let me pass I noticed he seemed a bit ‘the worse for wear’
I ran on and then circled around to retrace my steps, this time pausing under a bridge that again I had never visited before. As I snapped the above photo, the walker appeared from around the corner. This time I commented to him on the graffiti and he seemed happy to enter into conversation.
I told Eric I lived locally but had never run this way before….but got redirected this morning by a singing Cardinal! He replied he lived quite a distance away and this was also his first time to walk this particular trail.
“What do you think it means? “ He asked, pointing to the artwork.
“Ha!” I replied. “I always ask God about what things mean.”
“So what did he say?’ Eric asked.
“Well he said to me ‘Yer DA (’cause I see God as my father… and he speaks Belfast : – ) is K… for King’ (hence the crown over the E.)”
“Interesting!” Eric (which means ‘ever ruler’) replied.
He then pulled out of the bag he was carrying, a rock.
“I think there is an agate there.” He said pointing to an irregularity in the stone.”It’s pretty dirty though. I’d need to wash it off in the river to see properly.
“Standing there in my sweaty gear, I responded, “That’s a bit like us Eric; some of us might be pretty rough looking on the outside but our Da’ sees the precious jewel that he has made each one of us to be!”
We said our farewells.
I was running home, smiling at another ‘set up’ by Da’ when there right in front of me
……….was my third Cardinal (witness) : – )
……..flying out of:
P.S. I’ve just uploaded another video to YouTube, inspired by yet another ‘Divine encounter’ last week.