Whispers Across Time

This is a post I wrote a couple of years ago, but in honor of Sophie's 4th birthday today I am reposting it.

God often speaks so softly that we almost miss the conversation. It’s not until years later that you hear the echo of it and recognize it for what it is, a word from God.


I have a picture that hangs on the wall in my living room. It has been there since 2001. This picture is about 48" x 30" and is of a little girl standing in a doorway, long wavy hair, standing barefoot and holding a rose in her hand. I saw it at Menard's one day when I was perusing paint colors for the house that my then fiance’, now husband, had purchased for us to live in after our wedding. I was mesmerized, couldn't take my eyes off it. I felt like I totally had to have it, even though it didn't match anything I owned. It also cost a chunk of change. I went back to look at it four or five more times; finally I bought it. It has hung in the same spot in my living room since then, and I still love it.

Fast forward to 2007. I had just become (gulp!) a grandma and was struggling with the demands of having my own one year old and trying to feel "grandmotherly" towards this new baby. I was reading in my Bible and came across Matthew 18:5, which says "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." I was really convicted of needing to be more welcoming to my granddaughter and I wrote her name under the verse in my Bible to remind me of that. Sophie.

Fast forward one more year, 2008. I was in the bookstore of a church in the neighboring town. There, on the wall, was the picture that hangs in my living room. A plaque on the front of it held the verse Matthew 18:5. It was my “Sophie verse” on the picture I had to have. God really spoke to me that day, telling me that He knew everything that was going to happen in my life.

The last piece of this conversation, I think, takes place in 2009. I was telling a friend my "Sophie picture" story. As I was driving home, I realized that I didn’t have a relationship with God when I bought the picture. He has been whispering in my ear all my life, and I have finally tuned in to hear it. He has always been a part of me, even when I didn't know it. Always.

Thoughts to Consider

• Is there a time in your life when you thought everything was a random coincidence, but looking back you can see God’s fingerprints all over everything?

• If writing is your thing, write down a time you saw things falling into place in a way that have only come from God.

• Is it possible that He is whispering to you today, laying a foundation, for something to come?

Strength Builders

• I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jeremiah 31:3)

• Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. (Psalm 139:4)

• He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. (John 10:3)