Going to the package store, I was only expecting to pick up a headband I had ordered a few days before. So when the woman behind the counter emerged with my headband and a second mystery package, I was more than slightly confused. Opening it up, however, also opened up a wave of emotions that I was not expecting. In addition to some gum and Skittles (which were gone by the end of my 11 a.m.) were a code to a special Spotify playlist, some small bits of merchandise and, the crown jewel, a letter from myself courtesy of my old youth group.
I didn't feel mentally prepared to read such a letter in the Ferguson Center Mail Room at 9:45 a.m., so I waited until I was back in my dorm later to pull it out again. It was addressed to me from myself at a senior retreat back in April. I had completely forgotten I had written it, so opening it up felt entirely new.
I had written to myself giving a reminder that I was loved no matter what I was feeling or where I was at in my walk with God. In addition, I listed some of the people who I knew cared about me and who I told myself to call in case of an "emergency" in my faith or otherwise. Essentially, I had written everything I didn't know I needed to hear... and received it exactly when I needed to.
When we're at a low point in our lives (or a high one), sometimes something comes along that you just can't write off as a coincidence. This can come in the form of a text from a long lost friend just when you thought you were alone or flipping open the Bible to see a verse literally scream at you from this "random" page about your current circumstances. It can even be something as little as a certain tweet appearing at the right time in the right place.
In any case, I think these little things are really God winking at us from up in His house, showing us that He's with us no matter what. When we're walking through life, sometimes it's easy to forget where we're really supposed to be going. It's so simple to wander from the path that He has in mind for us, and sometimes it takes a tap on the shoulder from Him to realize how far we have strayed. But these small things are really big signs from Him that He will never leave us, and that He is here to help us whenever we call (and whenever we forget to).
The great people back home in Grand Rapids, Michigan should not have known that I needed this package when I did. In their eyes, they simply took the box from whatever shelf it had been sitting on for the past few months and sent it my way. However, to me, it is so much more. It was God taking me by the end and reminding me what I was worthy of and what path He wanted me to take. Even with the smallest of gestures and in the most random of places, I have realized you can expect His love if you only open your eyes to look for it.
