No Such Thing as Random

​I felt nudged to go for a walk, up on top of the adobes, in southwest Colorado, to be by myself. I slipped my hiking shoes on, grabbed my walking poles and a bottle of water for what I thought would be a quick one hour walk by myself. But that was my plan. In my world, I have lots of plans and then God’s plan comes crashing in and it ends up being way better than my plan could have ever turned out. And so it was today!

Once on top of the adobes, I saw a man walking two llamas, walking towards me. We exchanged waves and continued walking towards each other. Ok, this is random, I’m thinking to myself. Who walks llamas up here? I was about to find out.

The gentleman introduced his llamas, Handy and Trace, and then we exchanged introductions. We laughed at the odds of encountering each other in the middle of these barren adobes. He then invited me to join him on his walk. Who can pass up walking llamas? So I took Handy’s lead and off we went walking and talking through the adobes.

We shared parts of our stories, talked of choices and life, and how it’s a beautiful tapestry of fear, love, hope and faith woven together. Two and a half hours later, John shared he really didn't have a faith, that he was agnostic and just not sure if there was a God out there that really cared about him. But then he shared that he really admired the peace, contentment, acceptance and love that I seemed to possess and show towards others. I shared with him, that what he admired was actually the piece of God that our Creator had placed in me and that the God of the universe so loved him that He would have our two threads cross in this great tapestry of Life so that both our lives would be blessed! You see, we each carry a piece of the Father’s heart, we just sometimes need someone else to call it out.

I’ve had way too many of these types of encounters and I’ve learned, there’s no such thing as a random encounter...they are all planned, by a God that so loves each of us. It just requires us to let go of our plan and walk alongside another.

​Are you willing to let go of your plan and discover what God has in store for you and someone else?