Do you ever see something and think “There’s a story there.”
I thought just that when I looked up and saw the sign stuck on the ice machine of the hospital waiting area. The permanency of the sign made me do the double take. I was in a bit of a hurry and I tend to go through life sometimes oblivious of my surroundings especially when I don’t think things pertain to me. It was in that second glance I saw the sign and actually read the words.
“Don’t put hot chocolate in the ice machine.”
Wait.
What?
I looked around, there seemed no abundance of hot chocolate, not even a little bit of hot chocolate which would have been nice and comforting on the chilly morning in the hospital waiting area. I scanned again, looked the ice machine over and tried to figure out how this scenario had even come to be and more importantly how it had made a mark so indelible it required a sign, a permanent sign stating not to do it.
In my overactive imagination I imagined a toddler slinging packets of chocolate powder to and fro, a brown haze softening edges, dusting flat surfaces, a world of sepia tones making the toddler look like a mini rock star walking through a fog machine.
Perhaps someone had pulled a step ladder up to the top of the ice machine climbed upward and dumped hot chocolate into the ice holding area. For months every dosing of ice was chocolate flavored. That particular ice machine makes the “good ice.” Ice connoisseurs know exactly what that means, those tiny flakes or pellets that make for good snacking, how could that be a negative I wondered. I thought a bit more, copious amounts of frozen brown pellets… never mind I get it.
I was still pondering on it when I decided I wasn’t going to be able to figure this one out, I’d have to ask someone or do some research to determine exactly what the story behind the sign was.
Sometimes our walk with the King is like that sign. Indelible moments that mark us, mark periods of time and circumstances, markings of permanence, leaving a story in their wake. Sometimes we can try and figure out those things, try and understand why something like this would have happened, how this, the unexplainable could be. Sometimes we want to make sense of a situation, find a way to justify all the hurt, brokenness, disillusionment and the reality is, we can’t.
There are some things this side of Heaven we are never going to be able to understand, to reconcile or to figure out.
We can however choose to trust that God is good. He is good on the good days and on the bad ones. God is in control and He can be trusted to use all the things, the ones we understand and the ones we do not, for our good, and for His glory.
We can do so knowing that He is writing a beautiful story of us. Maybe, one day, others will look at your walk, my walk with Him and the testimony of what He’s done and think, “There’s a story there.”
Priceless 