At the Risk of Sounding Crazy...

I walked back to my car on Thursday, after spending some time in the sunshine.

I had a feeling God had been listening in on my conversation. Watching closely as my friend and I ate ice cream and let our hair get blown by the wind.

My friend got in her car and drove away and I pulled my keys out of my bag.

When I looked up, I saw a big blue Chevy parked a few spots away that I hadn't noticed before. It wasn't running. But in the driver seat was an old black man with dreadlocks. He was wearing sunglasses, no ring on his finger. There was no music being played from inside the truck, which was parked so it faced the picnic tables I had been sitting at all afternoon.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

He was watching me quietly. But his stare did not disturb me. I was not uncomfortable. My defenses did not go up.

But I was paralyzed with a single thought.

A single thought I would turn over in my mind for days on end. I could not pinpoint the origin of this idea, or what triggered it in my mind.

I was looking at God.

Crazy?

Maybe so.

But there has only been a few times in my life when I've had this feeling.

Like I was standing in the quiet presence of God.

They have been fleeting moments. Unexplainable and surreal.

I don't know why I had this thought. What was it about the blue Chevy, the wrinkled face, or the dirty dreadlocks, which made me think I was looking at the Creator incarnate?

Maybe a little blasphemous to even say such a thing.

But my body couldn't move. And my heart was dancing.

When I finally got in my station wagon and drove away, I did so reluctantly.

With joy in my heart. With an appeased imagination - that the Almighty had come to hang out at the park with me. That His quiet presence was a gentle approval.

There is a good chance you have a hard time imagining the Lord appearing on this earth in such a way. Or envisioning God looking like anything but a big man with a white beard. That you doubt that He even moves that way at all.

But I hope with all my heart that God hangs out at parks. That His skin is weathered by the sun. And that behind those dark sunglasses were eyes so filled with glory, we couldn't stand to look into them.