affirmations of His presence

A couple of weeks ago I was unpacking our stuff from the move and I discovered a picture that I haven’t seen in several years.  It was a pretty significant photo.

During the period in which Danielle and I were dating and moving towards getting engaged, I remember wrestling with the Lord quite a bit about whether or not I was really walking in His will in pursuing Danielle and I was always looking for little “markers” or hints of His involvement.

One time on a visit to the restroom in Danielle’s apartment (pardon me for taking you here for a moment), I noticed a picture on the back of her toilet.  It was a photo of a cross on the shore of a lake.  When I saw it, a flood of memories came back to me.  It looked just like a cross that I had come across as a young boy at a Christian camp I had visited.  I don’t believe I fully understood the gospel back then, but I certainly appreciated the existence of God and often went to Him in times of need.  I remember on one occasion, when I was there for camp, waking up early and going to that very place – the cross – to spend a little alone-time when I had something heavy on my heart.

Even though I don’t think I really entered into a relationship with God until I was 21, I felt like the remembrance of this cross reminded me that God was still “around” me and with me (in a slightly different sense) even back then.

When I first saw the photo in Danielle’s bathroom, I excitedly told her that it looked just like a place I had visited and that it was very significant.  I thought that maybe it wasn’t the same cross that was in the photo, though, because Danielle grew up in a Baptist church, and this photo was taken at a Methodist camp.  HOWEVER, Danielle informed me that she had never actually been to that place before and that the photo was a friend of her’s.  She told her friend she liked the photo years back and her friend gave it to her.  And…lo and behold…I HAD been there!

With that said, fast forward back to a couple of weeks ago when I’m unpacking some stuff.  I found a photo that our MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) had taken at the very same cross.  I went into the study where Danielle’s photo was and compared them.

I posted the photos below.  I’ll let you decide whether or not it was taken at the same place.

To me, these photos represent that the Lord has been with me, and operating in and through my circumstances way more than I realize.