My Visit from God

I had a visit from God this morning.  Not the kind of “visit” where He diverts my attention to a beautiful flower out of place, or when I have a great hair day, or I make it through the light right before it turns red.  I had a REAL, tangible visit from God.  At the post office, of all places.  To be specific, the post office parking lot. 

I have been under attack and in a pit lately.  A very dark, depressing, stinky, slimy pit.  Without going into the dirty details, just know it’s not a very spiritual place at all.  I’ve gotten closed off and, frankly, part of me seems to be getting comfortable there in a weird sort of way.  There is another part of me that desperately wants out, but just can’t reach high enough to get a grip to start pulling myself up.  I’ve fought with this often over my lifetime.  A lot.  And sometimes I even fight with God about it.  This time, I’ve just waited.  Waited and prayed that He would deliver me, change me, charge me; do whatever needed to be done with me and my circumstances to work me out of this pit.

This morning was the first time in months I listened to any Christian music on my way to work.  I love a praise team out of Oklahoma called Warr Acres, and basically had church in my car with them to the tune of “Hope Will Rise” over and over again.  I could feel myself soaking up the promises of God as I sang along with them.  But this was not my visit from God.

Every morning on my way to the office, I stop and pick up the mail.  This morning, the same as most, other familiar faces were doing the same.  As I entered, a woman was leaving and said “good morning” to me.  I returned the gesture, as I do with anyone else I see there on any other day.  I proceeded to enter the post office, get the mail, and leave.  Upon return to my car, still running in the parking lot, I heard a woman speak to me.

“Miss?”, she asked, “Miss?”  I turned to face the same woman I had just greeted while entering the building.  She was beautiful; dark skin, wearing a red wrap on her head and a white dress.  Her smile could light a dark room.  I have been getting the mail 5 days a week for over 5 years, at approximately the same time every day, and have never seen this woman before the greeting we exchanged.  “Yes?,” I responded. 

She hung out of the door of her white suburban and said to me, “Miss, please be encouraged today.  I waited and saw you walking, and the Lord says to you, ‘Keep your head up and be encouraged.”

All I could say was “thank you, thank you.”  She repeated, “Be encouraged. The Lord is with you.”  I just stood there, frozen, saying ‘thank you’ over and over, when all I really wanted to do was run to her and hug her.  But I felt like I was standing there with a giant hug wrapped around me, safe in the middle of the downtown post office parking lot.  It wasn’t just the words she said, but the wave of something that washed over me as she said them.  I could FEEL her words.

God spoke to me. 

It seemed like an eternity before I could move myself to go to my car.  When I got in, the sobs came.  The woman had already closed the door to her Suburban and left and there I was, sitting in my car in the post office parking lot, crying.  I was overwhelmed.  Dumbfounded.  Overjoyed.  Awed.  I don’t think I have ever felt anything like what I had just felt in my whole life.  And I had NEVER had any kind of experience with God like that, ever. 

As I left to go to my office, I called my husband to share what had just happened to me.  He seemed stunned, yet uninterested - maybe he was busy at work.  A few moments later he called me back and told me that for the last three mornings he had kneeled at my bedside while I slept and prayed over me that God would remind me of His love for me. 

And He did.

Blessings to you ~ K