With Beth Moore’s “Believing God” and a picnic blanket tucked under my arm, I made my way to a grassy area in the middle of Crump Park. 

My spidey-sense (aka discernment) pricked as I passed a man in the small gravel parking lot who was just sitting in his car with the door open as a small boy played close by. 

Why was his kid just hanging in a gravel lot instead of at the playground across the road or running around chasing ducks at the pond? I had mistakenly caught the man’s gaze and his cold, dark eyes sent a little wave of foreboding coursing down my body. He was not a good man.
I hurried over to a spot in the center of a big field, set out my blanket, put in some earbuds to block outside noise, and started reading about awesome God is and how if we only have faith he will be happy to show us.

A couple minutes in, I heard a voice. 

“You like reading?”

I glanced up and to my alarm saw the creepy man from the parking lot standing right next to my blanket. His son was half-heartedly kicking a soccer ball nearby. The field was virtually empty, yet he had chosen to invade my space. Not good. I begrudingly smiled and nodded and quickly went back to my book, alarm bells going off in my head. I turned so that I couldn’t see them and prayed for God to intervene.

Two minutes later I glanced back over my shoulder. There was a police car parked in the field nearby, and the man and the boy were gone. As in, they had gotten into their car and left.

I exhaled a huge sigh of relief and gratefulness,  knowing that God was the one who had sent the cop.

I still get weirded out thinking about it, but it’s good to remember God’s presence and protection! 

Prayer:

For believers to be so satisfied and content in God that their joy draws others to him. Beginning with me!

*For God to miraculously heal J  from painful masses growing in her back and for financial provision with medical bills