The Image Bearer

I was trying to find a particular skirt.
The store that was located near me did not have it.
I called another store that was a bit farther away.
They had the skirt and put it aside for me until I could get there to pick it up.

I thanked the woman and asked for her name so that I could ask for her when I arrived.
After she told me her name she added one more thing.
Have a blessed day, she said with a smile in her voice.
Thank you. You as well, I said with that same smile.

It was the way she said it.
I knew that we shared a love for the Lord.
I actually couldn’t wait to meet her to thank her in person.
I wanted to meet her even more than I wanted to get my skirt.

Later that same day, I went to the store to get the skirt she was holding for me.
I walked back to the department and I saw a woman on the phone.
I looked at her name tag and it was the woman I had spoken to earlier that morning.
When she hung up with another customer, I told her my name.

She smiled the same smile I heard on the phone.
You made me smile this morning when I talked to you, I admitted.
I did? She asked incredulously.
You told me to have a blessed day and I knew we had the Lord in common, I explained.

I serve the King, she said pointing towards heaven.
I do as well; what would we do without him? I asked rhetorically.
We both agreed.
What would we indeed do without Him?

You just know.
The Spirit of the Lord connects two believers together.
It is a bond that cannot be explained but it is a bond that is discerned nonetheless.
It happens quite often and I love when it does.

God sprinkles His people everywhere.
Somehow we find each other.
Little clues are left that are easily discerned Spirit to Spirit.
Finding another believer in the most random places blesses my heart.

On my way home, I had to stop at the grocery store for a few things.
Having my children home over the weekend, I needed to replenish some items.
I turned down the paper towel aisle with my cart.
I saw a woman much shorter than me trying to get a tissue box way in the back of a shelf.

I was going to offer to help her but something told me to wait a minute.
She was reaching for a box of tissues that seemed out of her grasp.
I assumed she was looking for a box of a particular color.
I have my favorite colors as well.

When I really looked, she was organizing the tissue boxes by color.
She was organizing the tissue boxes that are shaped like cubes.
She lined them all up according to color.
She made four neat rows.

I wondered if she was doing this in response to her struggle to find the box she wanted.
Perhaps, she just likes things organized and sorted.
I will never know.
The tissue shelf never looked so nice.

After she finished her sorting, she pushed her cart down the aisle.
She had done what she set out to do.
I tried to catch her eye, but she was not looking my way.
What I had witnessed made me smile.

Two separate incidents made me smile.
One incident had a subtle clue that was spoken at the end of our conversation.
The other incident was something I was not supposed to notice.
A woman, with a gift of organization, left the tissue shelf a bit nicer than before.

I knew that the first woman loved the Lord; she testified to it.
I have no idea if the other woman loved the Lord but I know she is made in His image.
God, the Creator, has left His hand print on us.
Our creativity reflects Him.

One woman was obvious about her love of the Lord.
One woman simply reflected His image in her small task.
The world would not understand either woman.
The first crossed the line of faith in the workplace they would say; the second was simply OCD.

One Creative Display.
For reasons unknown, the woman had to arrange the tissue boxes.
She had to put something that was out of order into some sort of order.
That is what God does.

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33)

The woman’s arrangement of the tissue boxes reflected the ordered nature of God.
The woman simply acted on the creative image of God that is within her.
The first woman was more obvious in her faith.
However, even though she was obvious, the listener still needed ears to hear.

God makes Himself known.
God makes Himself known through nature.
God makes Himself known through His people.
No matter how hard some people may try to deny the existence of God, they fail miserably.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1: 20)

We are without excuse.
God is everywhere.
God’s image is in the men and women He created whether they acknowledge Him or not.
It’s pretty amazing if you really think about it.

God cannot be denied no matter how hard some people may try.
We carry around God’s image inside us wherever we go.
We are undeniably made by the Creator God.
His hand prints are all over all that He has made.

And that is good.
And the men and women He created are declared very good.
God saved His superlative for the best.
We are the epitome of His creation.

Are you smiling yet?