What I am about to write may be beyond your understanding. In fact it may be beyond any human understanding or comprehension. I am not here to seek man's approval or understanding. I realized it sitting in a theater alone tonight – my last night in Paris.
It was a rare moment where a common art medium – a French-American film left me inspired, so much that I grabbed the nearest writing utensil (a sharpie in my purse) to frantically scramble notes on my palm in the dark.
In the movie, there was this final scene where all the main characters finally meet the person behind their crazy adventure, they meet at last then together, jump on a moving carousel, as it rotated and moved about the horses and carriages moving up and down, round and round. Seeing the carousel instantly took me back to my childhood days in China where in a dreamlike state I was 4 again, begging mom to come with me on the carousel as I carefully chose the ride that would house my precious little 4 year old butt for the next 5 minutes.
That's the magic of art, when done right, it engages all your senses to recreate a special memory: an event of the past, present, even future. In my mind, I just conjured up a brand new image that hasn't yet happened in real life. It's called dreaming. Yes and dreaming with God is my favorite pastime.
Back to the movie, there was also a scene even after the finale (don't you just love those "P.S." scenes, they appear nonchalantly as an afterthought, but "gets the last word" right before the screen fades to black.) where Mark Ruffalo's character shows up in front of the River Seine as the French girl sat on a bench, expectantly waiting but surprised to see him show up. The camera pans to the locks on the Lock Bridge. Mark and French girl then take a lock together, held hands as they threw the key into the river- a symbol of love and trust where individual secrets are thrown away and locked forever. It was fresh on my mind because I saw many other couples do this very act earlier this week on the Lock Bridge along the Seine.
At that precise instance, I felt an incredible clarity and confidence in believe this truth:
Nothing in my life happens by chance.
Not even the way a random movie I picked drew everything out of me and tied it beautiful together.
The fact I was born in China.
The fact I am a francophile.
The fact my name is Jacqueline.
The fact I saw so many carousels in France in the last two weeks.
The fact I was drawn to visit Mozambique.
The fact I didn't know why. And I kind of do now.
The fact I am in Paris.
The fact the movie is about Paris and NYC and Mark Ruffalo is in it.
The fact I wrote a blog about Ruffalo talking about missions.
The fact I am flying to NYC tomorrow.
The fact I am sitting here alone in the dark crowded theater.
The fact I am not alone.
The fact He see my brains working in putting all these facts together.
The fact these facts don't even matter.
The fact what I have yet to dream is coming to fruition.
The fact I am so miniscule yet a grand and big God knows that, but still knows me and designed a grand adventure for my eyes only.
I can go on and on. The point is, because God is the author and designer behind my crazy adventure called life, all my facts are conjoined and connect. God is probably very amused that I keep trying to connect the dots – which are as many as the stars, likely. IN FACT, do this, I dare you to start writing down a list of facts in your life and find how they are all connected.
The truth here is God is with me and for me and He is constantly inspiring me to new visions. Because God is the author of all my revelations. He's the designer of my dreams.
Here's to many more… dreaming & revelations.
