I wonder if anyone saw us weeping in the Taco Bell booth that Sunday. 

God did. 

***

I forgot a bag at my parents’ last weekend. They live two towns away. 

Short on time, I texted Dad to confirm the bag was still there before I made the inconvenient drive.

He immediately offered to meet me in between. 

Dad has even less time to make the drive than I do. 

He’s caring for Mom right now in this sorrowful season as she battles a crippling disease. 

He’s resolute on meeting me with the bag.  

Why does it have to be so hard? What a pointless waste of precious time in this already painful season. 

I’ll buy you a coke, dad says, once we arrived. 

We slide into an open booth. 

As we live this season of grief and survival, we have little room for time together. He’s one of my closest people. 

We sat there in the booth just like we sat in a booth decades ago, when he’d take me to lunch. 

This time we shared pain—but only because of great love for Mom and for each other. 

I miss Dad in this season. He never forgets us, not even with his own heartache. 

I wonder if anyone saw us weeping in the Taco Bell booth that Sunday. 

God did. 

He knew we needed these tender moments. 

He orchestrated them. 

He used my forgotten bag to create them.

***

What if this thing that’s happening to you right now is the most pivotal moment of your life? 

What if this harm is really turned for your absolute good?

What if you would have missed knowing Jesus’ breath on your face without this? 

What if years from now, you’ve ministered to the masses because of it? 

This is how our mighty God works—in the micro for the macro. 

In the short for the long. 

Changing the parts to change the whole. 

I don’t know what you’re up against today. 

I don’t know if you did something or if something is being done to you.

But God, who does no evil, can absolutely turn evil for your good.

If He can work through something as insignificant as my forgotten bag on a boring Sunday afternoon, imagine what He can do with the cards you’re holding. 

The bag that caused frustration became the vessel for praise. 

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV.)