Just like God intended, God had spoken through his creation, and his words were unmistakable: "I am here." But that wasn't all God was saying to me in that moment, for because I had read the words of a much older book, I also knew that the God who exists is also for me.
"We should just ignore people like that and let them yell at the wall for all we care," Laura told me. I hardly saw that as the time for being level-headed. Visions of landing a solid right hook across the guy's nose played in my mind's eye.
"Truth is still truth no matter whose mouth it falls out of. Had Hitler stood up and proclaimed, 'Berlin is the capital of Germany,' he would have been right, and to argue with that fact just because Hitler said it would be asinine."
"While Laura was still several steps behind me, a man with short graying hair pushed through the crowd and walked right up to me. He looked me in the eye, held up his phone, and asked, 'Is this your wife?' I looked at the picture on his screen. Sure enough. It was Laura with one of the dogs. That's when I put on my angry face."
"If you were to let the tidal wave of divine love knock you over where you stand, releasing in the rushing water all your sin and regret and guilt and shame, assured that God sees all that is in you yet rejoices that his Son Jesus willingly stretched out his arms and bled and died in your place to make a way for you to come back home, then you'd finally be in the one and only position in which loving others in that same way is possible."
"We had decided to take a step out of our boat and see if the raging waves would hold us up. That morning outside the supermarket, our feet were still falling—hadn't hit the waves yet—and it wasn't looking like the waves were going to be able to hold us up. In fact, I was wondering if car trouble meant we shouldn't just fling ourselves back in the boat, that is, return home, put our pajamas back on, and spend the rest of the day binge watching Columbo."
"God may utter his words at a given time, but his words are unlike our words that slowly get dispersed as they reverberate through the air and eventually cease. When God speaks his words, they continue to resound into eternity future. Just as God exist in the eternal present, so do his words."
"It was me and a dog on a leash traipsing down the sidewalk on Yellow Bucket Street. Me and a dog and the almighty Maker of heaven of earth, that is. He stooped low for those few moments; I felt him, and my mind turned to all the questions I wish he'd answer."
"The image of her clutching the shirt he'd wriggled free from before fleeing Potiphar's house earlier that afternoon appeared like a storm cloud over the horizon of his mind. He could not envision a positive outcome."
Can the future cause the past? When we view God as the Author of the universe, I don't see why not.