Ever have one of those moments where you don’t know why but you had to be there in order to enrich your faith? I had one of those moments Monday night.
I had been at Wal-Mart picking up some lights and other things, and decided that going to Barnes and Noble was the way to go. Anyway, I’m standing in the religion section checking out some books and this man walks up. He’s an older fellow, gray hair with a bald top. He sees me holding a book on God’s plan in our life and he asks if I’ve ever read “The Purpose Driven Life.” “Really, I hadn’t. So we start talking about the book and what it meant to him and his Walk, and I decide to get the book along with the other I had been looking to purchase.
But that’s only the start of the story.
We start to talk. He tells me of a friend of his. You see, this friend had been an influence in his life. He had been suffering through cancer and this guy was around as a friend to him during those final years. He told me a lot about this man - his humility, his stories, and how he enjoyed stopping a preacher in mid-sermon to ask him to explain something better. You could tell how this man was affected by this man, and you could also tell how his friend was affected him the love this man I just met showed.
We continued talking about his life, prision ministries and some stuff about his son. It was a great chance to just listen and who would’ve though this great moment in ministry would come in the aisles of a bookstore.
God will talk to us and show his love in amazing ways. I needed that conversation with that man. It was chance to just listen and learn about how God’s love ministers in the lives of others. Totally … awesome.
Throughout it all, this man gave me a pebble. It was a light blue pebble that his friend had given to him and others to hand out. The purpose of this pebble is to rub it when you’re frustrated and say a little prayer.
Thank God for moments like this and a good hour of conversation in the aisle of the religious section at Barnes and Noble.
