Praising Him for Barnes&Noble

Every Tuesday night is Small Groups night.
I love my Small Group. We have the best Small Group out of all the DTS. It's a fact.

So tonight to get off the base, we drove into the nearest city, Tyler, and hung out at Barnes&Noble. Our assignment was to pick out 3 books which best describe who we are individually and then share them with the group so we can all admire one another and the desires and dreams and giftings God has given us.

The first book I picked out was a compilation book of all the wonderful things C.S. Lewis has written about Aslan in his Chronicles of Narnia series. I LOVE ASLAN. And I love love love C.S. Lewis. Anyway, I knew the other 2 books I wanted were books about music and travel.

An employee overheard my difficulty finding the Travel and Music sections, so he offered to escort me in the direction I needed. I gratefully accepted.
My new friend led me to the Travel/Music section (they are combined, how convenient!) and I thanked him. Then he asked me about my interest in travel. That question was the spark of a flame that would end up being a 10 minute conversation: two strangers talking about travels, the future, the past, and life itself. It was so beautiful! I walked away from that conversation with electricity coursing through my veins.
I love people.
People need people. It's a profound, revolutionary thought. So simple. So true.

I then walked over to the cafe area with my 3 books to join my group of beautiful, dear friends who had their 3 books to share. I ordered my coffee and blueberry muffin, sat down with the 9 ladies I love most, and smiled. The joy of the Lord was present in this place.

We went around in a circle and shared why we chose our 3 books and how they relate to our personalities; oh, how beautiful a time it was! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but something powerful and precious happened in that time. We began to realize the beauty of God's placement of each young woman in this group and how creative and wonderful our personalities are!

The drive home was the perfect, chocolate icing on the cake. I just started talking about how thankful I was that God allowed me to have such a cool conversation with the Barnes&Noble employee, but expressed how sad I was that I didn't ask what his name was! Brittany said, "It's ok, God knows his name!" and that began a quick prayer I said aloud for my new friend, to bless him and praise God for him. After that, the four of us in my car began to gush and literally get teary-eyed at the love of God. The presence of the joy of the Lord was so thick in the car and was so heavy on our hearts. We were squealing like little girls in a candy shop over this simple fact: God loves us SO MUCH.

And that's it! I just needed to get this out and tell the world how much God loves! I'm just oozing with thankfulness and joy.

Glory be.

Peace.