Need an Autumn Hug?

      I wonder if I have a world-weary look on my face whenever I’m sitting in the car dealer waiting room.  Usually resting head in palm, minimally watching the blaring TV, my mind whirling with numbers adding up unexpectedly, wheres and whats and not agains... wanting to let go of worries, tumble them up in the air like bundles of varied-colored leaves…   Do I look like I need a hug?

Because it happened there again this morning.  Just like it did in this moment Catching Joy… and in this one Blessed Are the Pure in Heart.   I felt her there beside me, more than saw.  A warm presence, like a sweet breath upon my face.  Her soft plaid vest close enough to my right cheek to reach out and run my hand through it’s comforting fleece.

I turned into her five-or six-year-old bright-eyed warmth, blue ones looking deeply into my brown.  “Hi!” she greeted me, as to a favorite aunt she hadn’t seen in awhile, waving tiny hand in a gesture of “let’s be friends!”

“C’mon kids, this way,” her mom was bustling her along with younger sis and little brother…

Like a butterfly hovering colors of joy and beauty for a moment longer, she smiled into my answering hi! — looking as if reading untold words in my eyes — waved and danced off…

Just another tiny, momentary messenger sent my way to kindle hope up a notch, light a smile on my face… and skip prayers across my heart for this child and her family and whatever they may need…

Reminding me of another such message I thought I’d re-post for you here today… just in case you, too, could use…an Autumn hug… 

I pushed through the employee entrance that fall evening and... like Dorothy from Kansas…  stepped from a weary black and white world of office cubes into the almost dizzying color on parade along the wooded pathway to the car lot.  A yellow-brick road, just outside my day.

Breathing in the fresh crisp air like one who was parched for its beauty, I let my breath out slowly, relaxing.  Beside me, solemn faces hurried past…everyone scuttling to move ahead, get to their cars, go home to their lives.  Some talking a mile a minute on cell… making me think of Maxwell Smart and his shoe phone.

       Three things happened simultaneously then. 

A door slammed from the parking lot curb ahead.

 

A breeze rustled above, sending a dazzling shower of leaves raining, dancing, glittering down as bits of golden sunlight.

A little girl burst forward from the parked car, her squeal of pure joyous awe ringing out like sweet bells… as if she had never witnessed such a magical, enchanted moment before in her ENTIRE five years… her saddle shoes echoing against the pavement as she ran…

…racing , serpentining, punctuating her rapture with OOoooooohhhhhhh… OHH…  OOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!  Arms opened wide, she ran in circles with abandoned glee – hair bouncing as she reached to catch the leaves like so many snowflakes…  her exuberance echoing and skipping up the path to cover all us weary workers like crayola watercolors with phosphorescent glow.

Eyes danced.  Smiles radiated.  Joy waltzed beneath the trees…did a little pirouette… and lit our hearts like a conductor to a symphony.

Her exhilaration matches mine! I thought.  Only…I had simply felt like reveling in all this glory around us…letting go of all the ways life can make us feel less than….rejoicing in the One who is more than enough.  But it took a child, oblivious to all around her, to run free…spreading her eager hands open to receive.  No worries.  No fears.  Nothing beyond this moment and her song of joy.

Are you feeling a little weary-worn today? Pressures coming at you from all sides?              Let’s take a breath.  Stand beneath an autumn shower, open our hands as a child to receive, and let His blessings fill us with wonder…and music…and praise.  He will chase our storm clouds out to sea, carry us through…and if we listen we may just hear Him rejoicing over us with song… even as he paints this season gold.

© Pam Depoyan

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Ever been transformed by a similar divine moment? I’d love to hear about it… Or if you need a bit of encouraging prayer this fall, leave a comment and we’ll lift you up…

“The LORD your God is with you,  the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love… he will rejoice over you with singing.”                                                                         ~ Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)

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