I left the parking lot at work this past Saturday, needing to return two books from the library, that is, the right library. I threw the wrong one in my local library bin and had to have them fetch it back. That’s what comes from being a card holder at two public libraries.

After I did that, I felt the need for a little drive. Sometimes I do this on my hour break, because when you work on Saturdays sometimes it feels like everyone else on earth is off enjoying life except for you. Sometimes you want a piece of leisure, even if it’s only a little slice borrowed from someone else.

I rolled the windows down and the sun poured in with a light breeze along with it. In order to do proper observation, you really need sights and sounds both. I drove along in my sunny yellow bug and I drank in what I saw.

I saw people enjoying time off and in watching them, part of the blessing fell on me. With the sun on my face, I saw one man rollerblading down the street, and then another walking his dog.

I drove past the little house that has all the goats, and saw them all gathered close by the fence around a woman who might have been feeding them. Several had babies and I wanted to go talk to her and pet the goats but I couldn’t make a u turn from there so I drove on.

I drove around the back of the school and saw instructors giving tennis lessons at the school courts, a big group was practicing their swings and serves, slicing the air with their racquets.

Another large group had a basketball game going. They moved like a school of fish, back and forth across the courts…..punctuated with shouts and the tap of the ball on the concrete.

It was good, watching them all.  I felt just a trace of what God must feel watching us all, the people he created. As a detached observer, it was easy to feel the love He has for all of us all a little bit more. I felt the weight of the truth, that we really are just one big earthly family. Dysfunctional as all get out, but here.

Striving, trying, hoping, wishing…..living life and taking time out when we can; savoring those moments of time carved out from work, responsibility.

We lift the lid to that time capsule just for a moment and breathe deep…….we remember how it felt to live like a child with nothing but the here and now.

 For a moment, we forget all the grown up junk that is weighing us down.

And it feels good.

And yet, because we are human, we look ahead to where yesterday lives and tomorrow lurks,  worried and pressed down and shaken together about things that happened in the past or may happen in the future. 

As I head back into the building, I hear a bird call and it was so sweet that it made me want to cry. I remembered a time when the pool of grief was so deep that I couldn’t believe the birds had the nerve to sing, and yet somewhere I was grateful they were. So now when I hear birds I am reminded of all God brought me through. Birds and I have a special bond because now I hear them as the miracles they are. God makes both of us sing.

He has taught me the most important lesson of all, that no matter what goes on in this life, JOY is mine forever because of Him.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3: 14-19