Out of curiosity, on my drive back from a caricature gig in Hershey tonight I decided to take a slight detour to explore the realm of possibilities…
It was getting late–nearly 11:30 pm–and the big part of me wondered if this would be some wild goose chase taking me 15 minutes out of my way for absolutely no good reason.
But…in my mind…I kept contemplating the realm of possibilities…
What if…could it possibly be…I pondered…as I made a right turn off of 194 onto Lake Meade Road.
I do take that road sometimes as a cut through to 234, I believe…and then right…and eventually get on 15 South from up that way.
As I racked my brain concerning my whereabouts on that road during the last 5-6 weeks, I kept trying to remember…was it possible I had stopped at that house number to pick up something free by the curb?
The last time I recall doing something like that I “think” it was on Election Day…but…I would have been heading a different direction on a different road. I remember seeing a large number of flower pots (some very large, actually…patio containers) all down by someone’s mailbox with a sign that they were free. I turned around and loaded them into my van, happy at the find.
I just don’t recall stopping like this anywhere since then…but…was it possible somehow I might have done so?
I had the address in my GPS, and when it told me to turn onto another side road off of Lake Meade Road (the address was on Lake Meade Drive not Lake Meade Road but before I went I thought perhaps they are the same) I started thinking it was becoming less and less in the realm of possibilities that this excursion would prove fruitful.
In fact, five or so minutes later when I was getting further out from the familiar and my GPS told me to turn right into the Lake Meade Community, I did a U-turn and headed home.
My mind was reflecting on the idea of possibilities…and for some reason I just couldn’t yet “call it” that this was in fact, beyond the realm of any possibility! The very idea that the sequence of something Sunday could have possibly led to an amusing, minor miracle and major “God wink” was one I was having a hard time absolutely closing my eyes of possibilities to.
As I was driving, I was definitely using the time thinking about this whole realm.
I imagine some people would have never even considered for one second that this thing might be in the realm of possibility…let alone actually waste any time or gas confirming that it was in fact, not possible.
As I drove back up Lake Meade Road I thought to myself, maybe I should look at some of the mailbox numbers. Because it could yet be possible the person put the wrong address (Drive, not Road) by mistake…and surely…I do travel that way fairly often, maybe once a week or so.
Maybe, just maybe…those flower pots I picked up were on that road, and not some other back road I drove on the way to vote. In fact, maybe it wasn’t even that day...maybe…it was possible I saw those pots on my way to a gig that last weekend in October.
That’s about how long I haven’t been able to find my driving glasses…
As I drove along this road–the only lonely vehicle in sight–I tried to slow up at a mailbox and squinting, I tried to make out the number. It was possible the number began with a 3, I thought to myself…and it has 3 digits. Hmmm…if I saw that correctly…then it could yet be possible that 219 would be coming up…
Already, this wild goose chase had some element of risk and challenge in my mind!
Have you ever been in some weird situation where part of you thinks, “Maybe this is a bad idea.”
I mean…what if…what if I had gotten to that address to check the top of their mailbox at 11:30 at night using my cell phone light, on a pitch dark back road, and the people saw me and thought I was suspicious!
Or…what if…in pursuit of this thing I hit a deer!
Both of these things exist in the realm of possibility.
Some things are possible, but, not probable.
What I was looking for was not out of the realm of possibility…but…it was not too probable I would find that the pair of glasses this person was leaving on top of their mailbox were actually mine!
I thought to myself…where is the end of “possibilities?”
I thought of examples.
To have a stranger living within 5 miles or so of me in an area I sometimes travel, post on the Next Door app a photo of glasses that “almost” look like mine that she said she found on the ground by her mailbox, and have it turn out that I lost them there…is still within the realm of possibility I suppose…but…it is so wild and improbable that I was intrigued!
I mean…wouldn’t that just be like God! Just Sunday morning at church I was chatting with a friend and made the comment that I was having trouble seeing sharply something in the distance because I had lost my driving glasses. She laughed and said, “I know. I read that!”
I mean…what would be the odds I would go straight home and soon after see such a weird post on the Next Door app…that someone found a pair of glasses. I actually kept searching through many photos til I found a picture of my lost glasses.
Ironically, I located the following picture in a post I made last year about losing my driving glasses! You see…I only wear them to drive, to read church overheads in the distance, and…(drumroll!)…when I run my weed eater. To protect my eyes.
Because…I don’t like goggles.
I like to just put on my glasses, and then when I pause the weed whacking and plan to resume, I often hang them on some post while I go get some water. Or, whatever.
You know…so I can walk around or do something else not needing them. (I really need trifocals…and though it technically is not beyond the realm of possibility that some day in the far distant future I would dare try those things again, it is, quite frankly…highly unlikely!)
On Sunday, I studied the two photos carefully.
They appeared to be similar, but, different (I honestly couldn’t recall my frames precisely) but my photo showed a hint of pink on the earpiece. Maybe?
I thought perhaps the weather has affected the finish on them…that was possible?
I studied it more closely…I “think” the shape of the lens is definitely different.
I made some comments on the post which included some “LOL’s” and decided Sunday that I didn’t think those were in fact, my lost glasses. The last I recall having them was the day my son Zach came with his chain saw. I was using my weed eater, and, I have looked all around outside, and all through my house, and the glasses are nowhere to be seen.
Yet, it is actually within the realm of possibility they are still on the property or in my house!
(Sooner or later I will order a new pair, they needed a slight RX update anyway but it isn’t significant so I haven’t pursued it…until…I lost them! My insurance covers frames and lenses, but I will likely want the transitioning sunglass effect, since I use them for driving…and weed whacking IN THE SUN, lol!)
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As I drove along that road tonight squinting at mailbox numbers at 11:30 pm…a smile came over my face. I knew it was a wild goose chase…but the peaceful sense of God’s presence and Him watching me on my excursion—knowing my thought processes and recognizing the tremendous humor of my squinting to read mailbox numbers searching for the remote possibility that I had lost my glasses at some strangers house and might find them and immediately recognize them…was just so worth it.
Even now…I’m relaxing…writing…smiling and giggling just a bit.
I think it’s funny.
Readers may wonder…in what realm of possibility might I have lost driving glasses while loading up free flower pots?
Ahhh….that’s an astute question!
You see.…because I can’t wear trifocals…(or bifocals)…sometimes I wear them in stores. I can see the aisle marking signs, and then when I get close up to a shelf and want to read a box…I just push them on top of my head. Til I’m reading to walk again.
It was possible (in my mind) I got out of my van and pushed them on top of my head, loaded up the pots…and somehow…maybe I bent over and they slid off when I was carrying something…
Maybe. It would have been possible...
Maybe the last time I recall having them was not when Zach was here…maybe…maybe….
I had saw a notification on that post tonight where she said she’d leave them on top of the box…and on a whim I suppose…I just had to know for sure. It just would have been such a fantastic “God story.”
As I drove and ruminated, I had it all worked out in my mind!
What if…what if I got there and those were my glasses. I could have said, “You will not believe this. God sees! God sees me!!! Somehow I lost my driving glasses at a stranger’s house five miles away, and this stranger posted them on the Next Door app, and I showed up and put them on and it was my prescription! Just when I was on the verge of ordering a new pair…only GOD could have done THAT!”
But now, I cannot report that.
I mean…I must have a lot of faith at times in what might be possible. It’s evidenced in a multiplicity of ways I won’t enumerate here. So many times in my life–and in yours–haven’t we believed and acted upon some type of hope or faith for things that exist in the realm of seeming impossibilities?
I thought a lot tonight about the blur of realms…what separates something from truly being impossible from being within the realm or even likelihood of possibilties.
It’s actually possible that my glasses could be found on the moon. Yes…I might have lost them at some diner booth on a gig in DC area, maybe someone picked them up for some reason…and they were an astronaut. And…and…they were headed on a trip to the moon…or, Mars…and somehow…I know…they took a time capsule of junk from a landfill…into outer space…and…and…OK OK…the probability of this is so very small that we might say this is not within the realm of possibility.
If you’ve read this far, I’m somewhat surprised perhaps that is possible! How quickly do you embrace or abandon the possible? Whether hopes, dreams or so much more in life?
Many times as we pursue something possibly beyond the realm of possibility, we discover that the journey God takes us on leads us beyond that which we can even imagine…and in a very real sense, we find that so much is actually possible–even probable. We may feel that we “cannot” yet find the He stretches us, forms us, conforms us in some way to where we say, “By His grace, yes, I can.”
I think of Sarah. In Genesis 18, God communicates to Abraham that Sarah will bear a son to him.
“Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. 11 Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. 12 So she laughed silently to herself and said, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?”
13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”
But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”
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