The treasure I didn’t hunt for

A heart shaped shell poking out of the sand on the beach.
A rock, also shaped like a heart, lying on the side of the path when hiking through the foothills.
Hearts in the sky…
Hearts in the roots and knots of trees.

One of God’s love languages speaking to a dear friend’s heart.
It captured my heart.
And my daughter’s heart.
So now we hunt for hearts around us in the things we see every day.

I was driving down our street last week…
kind of discouraged and before I knew it I was desperately looking in the tree branches for a heart.

There had to be a hundred trees lining this street – I know God had a heart for me somewhere in there… but I didn’t find any.

Made me think about how we have to keep our eyes open and sometimes hunt for these love notes… but I was a bit disappointed not to have found what I was looking for.

When I came home later that day and logged onto facebook, my precious friend had posted this:

Do you see it?
The heart in the branches.

I shared in a comment about my drive earlier and how I didn’t see a heart when I was hoping for one in branches… and here is one staring at me from my computer.

Her response:
“I actually think this one is for you, not me, jenni. took this picture a while ago but used it for my gratitude today. it’s no coincidence that today is when I posted it when you were looking for love in the trees. He works that way a lot. love it! still wants to surprise us even when we are looking.”

Isn’t that the truth?

We always find Him when we seek Him ~
but quite often it isn’t how or where we expected Him to show up.

Over and over again in scripture we get to see God in unexpected ways…
in unexpected places…
like manna,
like the boy sharing his bread and fish,
like in the parting of the Red Sea,
like as a baby who is the Savior of the world born in a humble stable.

How is God showing up in your life today?