Real eyes...

I've been in a kind of blogging ebb lately, between taxes, other stuff, and, well, an ebb. Like, ebb tide. Not exactly discouraged, just kind of. So I was looking forward to lunch with my friend Dave. Good times.

As we walked toward our cars, I noticed a front-bumper plate on a gray SUV:

Real Eyes
Realize
Real Lies

It took a minute to sink in, and all I could think was, "Wow..." Dave and I just been talking about how we miss God's greatest for us, often by trading our forever identity as favored kids of God for temporary securities in the world around us (money, questionable relationships, etc.). (Take-home quiz: what have you traded lately?)

So I bent over and took a picture to remember it for...the blog. Talk about a kiss from the Lord; here was something I couldn't wait to share. And this thing was really well done; it had some graphics on it that along with the text added up to, "Now that's a woman, and she's been HURT...and she's learned something along the way." Something we could all afford to learn. Something we all need, from the only one who can give us Real Eyes.

• Real Eyes - To discern truth from deception and confusion, to distinguish between good and evil spirits. But also, even to present Real Eyes to those around us, to show our eyes to the world instead of hiding our work-in-progress Christianity behind a mask.
• Realize - To understand down deep, but also to "REAL-ize," to make real the truth we've seen.
• Real Lies - Be they malicious or just confusion, we are surrounded by lies about God's character, the completeness and accuracy of the bible he gave us, and ourselves.

But wait, there's more.

So I've taken the picture and we're finishing the conversation before heading off. Out of the side door of the restaurant comes a lady - the lady. She saw my interest, and she wanted to talk.

A few years ago she was going through a really hard time in her life, and she had a dream. I guess there was some drama going on in the foreground, but on a wall in the background were those words, big as life. Just like that. Totally out of the clear blue.

"I knew it was from the Lord, for me," she said. I told her I wrote a blog, and asked if she would mind if I used it. "I love to tell people about this; go ahead."

I hope she keeps doing that. I wish I could bottle up her story and her joy to carry around share with everyone (starting at our home church!). Heck, I hope she does the whole bumper plate, T-shirt, etc. thing and makes a bazillion dollars out of it. I have a feeling she'd use it well.

We talked a little longer, and then we all parted: me to review a paper, Dave to do some writing, and she to her now-cold lunch. But we were all a little warmer from God's love.

It was a great lunch. Who knew? 
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