Jury duty...downtown...Rob's world.
It throws me every time—Rob is supposed to be there. With each pair of Johnston and Murphy's pounding the pavement, I expect to look up and see his smiling face. Why is he nowhere to be found among the pinstripes? 
Instead, I visit with a young woman also summoned yesterday. We freely talk as women do and before I know it she is pouring out the loss of her young husband, a fresh loss of only a year. I want to gently wipe away the stream of tears from her face and heart, but I know there are many more to fall in order to heal. We share our stories and our Hope and I have a quick chance to slip her my email and number before she is called to another room. Will I hear from her? Who knows? Only grief knows what steps it will take.
But what is the chance that two believers who have recently lost their husbands in traumatic, untimely fashion would sit next to each other in a crowded assembly room?  In fact, out of three rooms filled with potential jurors!  May I call that a God chance?  A chance for God to work out his plan to watch over us again and again...
So what am I learning from yesterday's encounter?
Show up; be present.
Be sensitive to the needs of those around me.  
Be willing to share my story no matter how painful.
Be grateful for all circumstances.
The day after jury duty, I feel richer for meeting this brave, young woman who is hurting in the worst way. I hope she accepts my desire to walk alongside her.
I invite even the painful moments, the downtown moments, because God shows up big! 
I'm forever thankful for the way He wrote my last chapter with Rob...time to hold hands and say all that needed to be said, the chance to care for his every need, the opportunity to see him today in his beautiful children. Not everyone gets that chance.
From the beginning, I've wanted to cling selfishly to our love story, protecting it from the world's scrutiny, but it was clear that this was God's love story to share.
The more it's told, the more He writes.