God touched me in a big way today

A minister has been visiting the family for several days, and I spoke to him today for the first time on this visit. We had only met once previously, and if I recall correctly, I didn't much speak at that meeting (as I was but a child, and an intensely shy one at that.) My shyness has, apparently, only increased over the years and I was beginning to think that he would spend the whole week and I would say less than fifty words to him the entire time.

The family attended a wedding yesterday, as did I and my sister. He wished to speak to me today about the wedding (making conversation, I believe.) We spoke to some small degree about it, about the bride and to a lesser extent the groom. The conversation lasted perhaps twenty minutes, then we mutually agreed we had no more to say on the subject. As he started to leave the room, on an impulse (a touch of Providence, I believe,) I asked him for advice on marriage.

We spoke for hours. I explained the situation of my broken family, my resultant brokenness, my boyfriend's broken family, his resultant wounds. I spoke of our shared shyness, our intent distrust of others, the highly unusual circumstances of our meeting, our logic-defying attachment and relationship. I spoke of my fear of both our failure, of our knowledge of what not to be and our lack of knowledge of what to be, of our determination to succeed and our uncertainty of how.
The minister compulsively began to pray for my boyfriend. I was grateful, of course, and added my prayer to his, glad that someone else was praying for my boyfriend (for we all need all the prayer we can get.) And then he began to pray for me. I know, intellectually, that many someones pray for me and my family, but it was the first time I'd heard anyone do so, so... personally. The shock that went through me was akin to the time I folded a fleece blanket that had been through the dryer, that sent its entire accumulation of static through me on the last fold.

I spoke to him also of a dear friend, saying what I could without betraying her confidences in me (for instance, that she is one of the smartest people I know, very intellectual, and very caring.) He prayed for her, as well, and again for me, and it was still stunning. Afterwards, we began speaking of miracles we'd experienced, or rather, I spoke of them and he offered to tell me his own stories, which offer I gratefully accepted.

I grew up without a father, or any guiding man in my life. I knew, intellectually, what I was missing, knew I had a hole in my heart that wasn't and wouldn't be filled. I knew something was wrong. But until today, when I had a man old enough to be my father, towards whom I'd been so shy as to be borderline rude, sit down with me, one-on-one, and just talk to me, who offered wise advice and support and listened, and just had an aura of warmth and acceptance about him, I didn't realize what it was. I think, today, I glimpsed what it would've been like, if I'd had a father. I am... so grateful, for these hours. My Father today gave me a great blessing, a wound I'd forgotten I had - have - assuaged.

My Sister's Computer

Yesterday, I spilled boiling tea all over myself, my sister... and my sister's laptop keyboard. Despite my best and immediate efforts, tea got down into the keyboard. It was on the fritz for the rest of the day - even plugging in an external keyboard didn't fix the problem, but reacted the same way. And then, as I prayed about it, and when my sister listened to a hymn on it, it suddenly started working perfectly again. =)

The Flashlight

My little flashlight I use after everyone else has gone to bed disappeared a few days ago. I looked everywhere I could think of for it, for a couple of days, but no sign of it. At night as I was headed upstairs in the dark, I made a throwaway comment to God - "Please let me find my flashlight, this may be a silly non-issue, but it sure does help with navigation in the dark!" Checked again, in the same place I already had, and lo and behold, there it was. =)