FLORIDA SON-SHINE

“Peek-a-boo!” I cry, as I pull my hand away from my eyes. My little daughter squeals with glee. She is overjoyed because I am there when a moment ago I was invisible. She is learning to answer the question: If you can’t see it, is it really there?

This question lingers past childhood and becomes a faith question: If you can’t see God, is He really there? As we grow in stature, maturity and faith, we find new ways to attack that question. But still we insist: “Prove it. Show me. Give me hard evidence. How do I know for sure?”

A week in December offered one moment of illumination. I was accompanying my oldest daughter, now in high school, to Fort Lauderdale for a soccer competition. My husband had made all the travel arrangements for us. But I am an extremely anxious traveler – and with good reason. If I can miss the flight, I will. And we did. After much hand-wringing while flying standby, we boarded a flight to Orlando instead. There, we rented a car and drove into the wee hours of the night. Four exhausting hours later, we arrived in Fort Lauderdale, only six hours before her first game.

The week was full of sun and good soccer, but otherwise uneventful. The team had some wins and some losses. But as my business and my passion are preventing injuries in our young athletes, I consider it a complete success. There wasn’t even a sprained ankle. Now, my daughter and I must retrace our steps to travel home. We make the long drive back to Orlando a day early and randomly choose a hotel near the airport where we’ll spend the night. We want to have plenty of time the next morning to return the rental car and catch our flight. Taking no chances!

Up early for breakfast, I sit at a table with my coffee, my journal and my Bible. To think, here I am at a hotel I’m not supposed to be in, in a city far from where I’m supposed to be, on a day I am not supposed to be here. I’m tired. My daughter is tired of my company. I have messed things up pretty royally.

Suddenly, a couple walks up. “It is Wendy!” they say enthusiastically. “We’re so glad to see you! We think Katie has seriously injured her knee.” We exchange hugs. These are long-time friends from Virginia with a daughter who just happens to be competing in Orlando this week. Their despair is evident. They go on, “And just when three college coaches were coming to watch her play! She is devastated.” “Yup,” I think to myself. “I went into my business not just because girls’ knees were getting hurt, but because their hearts were getting broken.” Imagine: the Creator of Heaven and Earth has shuffled flights, hotels, schedules, rental cars and cities so that I might participate in His cardiac rehabilitation program.

Coincidence? No way! God-incidence. How do I know? I see Him in this moment, in the relief and renewed hope on the faces of these friends. And in these circumstances, which no human hand could have sketched. In the Light of Christ, it’s easy to see, not just in shades of gray, but in Living color.

— Wendy LeBolt

Courtesy of The Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist