A Journal Journey

Published by christi on July 20, 2023July 20, 2023

I had never been in this particular store until yesterday. And I hadn’t planned to be there at all.

I was looking for three things. I had already found the shoes I needed and the tote bag to replace my tattered thrift store purse. Now I was hunting for a new journal. The current one had only four leaves left.

I headed for the back of the store, but had no clear idea where I would find the books to write or draw in. I found a free-standing display rack with several notebooks, but they were very large — too large to be easily carried in my new bag — so I moved on. The very next steps I took led me straight to the aisle that had the planners and sketchbooks. There were a few journal-type notebooks, but the bindings were torn, or the covers were tacky or loud — not what I was hoping for. I could certainly use them if I needed too, but they didn’t invite intimate conversation. (You  know, glowing neon versus candlelight.) There were plenty of planners and devotionals, but my heart was not drawn to them.

“I wonder if there is another display around the other side,” I thought. Turning the corner, I found art supplies:  canvases, paints, markers, but no journals. Still scanning the shelves, I headed toward the front of the store. Not a few feet further, I spotted it. Mixed in with the crayons and colored pencils, the disorganized jumble of vaguely related objects was a lovely, discreet, leatherette-bound, snap-closure journal. It was the only on I had seen like it, and it was tucked away toward the back of the shelf, almost as if someone had hidden it there for me to find…

I snatched it up and ran my fingers along its spine and along the smoothly trimmed edges, unclasping the snap and feeling the unwritten pages. Done!

Placing it with my other intended purchases, I took a few steps before I became aware of the precious gift I held in my hands. Papa-God had hidden it there for me to find, knowing that my heart craved just such a gesture of remembrance. I felt seen. I was known.

And the One Who Sees and knows me had planned to meet my need, in a place I didn’t even know I was going. That’s why I am still

Following Jesus every day in the everyday,

Christi