Orchestration

The morning started out like many other days.  I got up, wished I could sleep about 2 hours longer, staggered into the dining room, and sat down with my tablet thinking that I would look at my email and then facebook, and then read my scriptures.  When I checked facebook right away I saw a really beautiful quote I’d never seen before so I shared it onto my page.  I didn’t have anything to say about it (which is unusual for me, right?) but I wanted to share it.  Then I stumbled across a video of a man playing a trombone for his cows in a field and that made me forget all about the quote.

I had a date with my curves friend that morning and at the right time I got up, grabbed my phone and purse, and started walking towards the front door.  As I did I happened to glance at my phone and saw that the green light was blinking so I checked my texts.

Power went out so I’m only waking up now, will be there in about 20 minutes,

texted my curves friend.  Since I only live 8 minutes away from curves this meant I’d just gained 12 more minutes before I needed to leave.  Sweet, I thought, I’ll go back to my tablet and figure out how to wash those new fleece sheets I got Jenna.  I woke the tablet back up and it was still on facebook.  As I went to minimize it so I could go do my fleece sheet care search, I noticed a somewhat odd post at the top of the facebook page.  It was from someone I didn’t know to a friend of mine and it just said “I love you.”

I started wondering about my friend.  She & I have talked many times over the last 5 or 6 years because she has been going through something difficult that I have also experienced.  I wondered if she was all right so I pulled up a chat window and asked how she was.  It turned out that she wasn’t doing very well and so for the next 15 minutes (yes I was late to curves) we talked online.  I wasn’t able to make anything in her life or situation different—but hopefully it helped for her to be able to talk to someone she knew would understand.  It certainly helped me to be able to be supportive in a difficult time for her.

At the end of our chat she told me that she’d loved the thing I posted on facebook.  I was stymied.  The thing I’d posted?  I’d posted a funny video with a trombone and cows.  What could she mean?  Then in the very back of my mind I remembered that I’d shared something else before the trombone video.  For the life of me I couldn’t remember what it even was.  I clicked my page on facebook and then I saw it.  The quote I’d really liked and shared—well, it was about the situation she was going through.  In fact it was perfect for that moment.

As I drove to curves I couldn’t shake the awareness of how the day had played out.  Sharing the quote on Facebook—and then forgetting about it.  The time delay that allowed me to see the post on her wall.  Being able to talk to her exactly in the moment when she had time.  It all seemed to me to be such an orchestration by Heavenly Father so that he could use me in a critical moment to help my friend.

I tell people all of the time that I have a lot of issues with prayer.  I’m not good at it, my prayer aren’t powerful, I don’t hear answers.  At the same time though, I can’t deny that sometimes my prayers are answered…and that sometimes I get answers to things that are on my mind that I haven’t prayed about.  I also struggle with the concept of personal revelation/inspiration.  It is so hard for me to distinguish between the voice of the spirit and my own hyperactive brain.  And yet from time to time I see conclusively that even if I didn’t hear it in the moment, I have done something that must have been directed by the spirit because of it’s precise perfection.

This was one of those moments.