Stranger Number One

I found myself in a motel breakfast room the other morning. You know, the kind where the breakfast is free with your stay. Now I've eaten in many of those. Some are pretty pitiful, and they can barely be called a breakfast. Cereal and bread that you can toast, with some watery orange juice. I had just been at one of those a few days before. I'm not complaining; I'm grateful. But on this particular day, the stay was at a nicer motel (which I had gotten cheaper, lol. Go figure.), and the breakfast was a good one. The kind with make-them-yourself belgian waffles. Plain and blueberry. With all of the fixings: strawberries in a syrupy glaze, chocolate chips, different maple syrups, real whipped cream, and other things I can't remember. Other good breakfast food was available as well, but I was going for the waffles. I need that many carbs in my breakfast in the same way that I need another hole in my head, but the waffles were a rare treat and I'm a weak woman. What can I say? My daughter, Sarah, was on a business trip and was with me. Another rare treat. She lives on the other side of the country with her navy boy husband, who took her as far away from me as he possibly could without leaving the country. Haha, just kidding. Uncle Sam took them there. Brian plans to retire soon and bring her back to me in the not-too-distant future. He's alright himself. Brian had used the occasion of Sarah's business trip to fly out to help me with some storm aftermath. He cleaned and repaired the gutters of my house, reattached the shutters, caulked the windows, trimmed the bushes, and cut back trees, and he did most of it swaying from the top of a rickety twelve foot ladder. The storm was not even weather related. Funny how that all works together, isn't it? After a few days of working in the coal mines, he deserved a break and so did I. So we drove down to where Sarah was, still on her business trip, three hours from my house. Time for a day or two of R&R. So, as I stood in the line for the waffle-making-machine, a man comes up to me and looks at me funny. Hmmm. I do what anyone who knows me knows that I would do. I make eye contact and smile big at him. I can't seem to help myself. My kids make fun of me. Well, all except Sarah. She's the same way. He looks puzzled and says that he is sorry, but he had been confused for a second. Then he asked me if that was my daughter sitting over by the window, pointing at Sarah. I nodded affirmingly. Then he grinned. "Ahh", he says. "For a second there you had me going. I knew I had just seen you, and couldn't figure out how you got over here so fast with a different shirt on." Are you kidding me, mister? I LOVE you!!! :) I love easily, remember? Of course I didn't say that. We laughed together, and I told him that he had made my day. Then he went to the end of the waffle-making line, and I stepped up to make my three waffles. I'm making them for Sarah and Brian, too. We need to fill up good, because we plan on skipping lunch. We have a fabulous dinner planned at one of my favorite restaurants. So, that was my first stranger. God sent him to encourage me. I needed it and God knew. Now I know that I indeed look the twenty-six years older than Sarah that I am. Notice, the stranger didn't ask if she were my sister. He knew daughter, when he thought about it and looked at me real good. But it was a word fitly spoken, just the same. Proverbs 25:11 - "A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." God does that with me all the time. He sends me people to encourage me and help me. I often wonder, when that happens, if I had been entertaining an angel, unaware. I've told you that before. God doesn't just speak to me in my heart. He speaks to me using the voices of others. The other day, it was some little girls in the bathroom. On this day, a stranger who obviously needed new glasses. But it's God speaking. Speaking to me. Because He loves me. And I know it. Words to help me from my sweet Father. Encouraging words from a stranger. Stranger number one. God always knows just what I need, and supplies my need every time. Now you might be thinking that my way of seeing that is silly. That God doesn't have time for such foolishness. All I can tell you is that you must not know Him like I know Him. He is so good and sweet to me. I know that it's Him. I know Him. :) Tomorrow I'll tell you about stranger number two.