When I was a kid, my dad used to tell me, “you’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.” As an adult, I’ve worked at putting various systems in place to compensate for my absent-mindedness.

• My eyeglasses are in the same spot every night,
• My keys go in a dish as soon as I walk in the house,
• I store things on my phone as soon as I possibly can so I don’t forget them.

But I still have those times. Just last week I lost my bus/train pass. Whoever found it got two full days of travel on my dime before I was able to report it missing.

But, sometimes God uses my forgetfulness.

A month ago I was packing up some groceries at SuperValu – Killester. I bought a bit more than I could comfortably fit in my backpack, so I was rearranging the bag.

The next day I was looking for a book I had bought, and it was missing. The only place that made sense was the grocery store. While SuperValu is only a 20-minute walk from home, I put it off. 

While I originally felt like I was just procrastinating, I think God was orchestrating something.

So, after a couple of weeks, I decided to go to SuperValu and check. Elaine, the woman at the counter seemed a bit annoyed that she had to go into the back room…but maybe that was just me reading into it.

When she came back, she held up the book and asked if that was it. When I told her it was, she said, “I love this quote,” and handed me the book.

“People don’t abandon faith because they have doubts. People abandon faith because they think they are not allowed to have doubts.”

– Austin Fischer, Faith in the Shadows

I said something, and then asked God, “what do I do?”

My sense was, “buy her a copy of the book.”

So last week I walked in and said, “You probably don’t remember, but you helped me find my book a couple of weeks ago. And you mentioned that you liked the quote on the back cover…so I wanted to give you a copy. Thank you!”

She smiled and said thanks. 

I included a card that has my phone number and website (thetabledublin.ie).

What happens next? I don’t know, but I would like to ask you to pray for Elaine, and I’ll keep you up to date!