Generally, unless it is an emergency, I try to stay off of my phone on Erev Shabbat and Shabbat. Being in Florida, however, I have tended to leave my phone on just in case. So this morning, Shabbat morning, I received an email regarding Ruach’s building and work I am doing regarding the changes in ownership. I thought it would put the writer at ease if I responded, so I did.

First, the email I sent wouldn’t download. No matter what I did, I couldn’t check what I sent. To make it even more bizarre, when I went into my “Sent” folder the ONLY messages, from now and going all the way back to 2014 when I got this IPhone, were my Shabbat encouragements!!! This just cannot be!! I look at my “Sent” folder on my phone many times, and yet, all that were there were words that drew me right where I should be, into His Presence, focusing on HaShem on Shabbat morning.

I was mystified. There was no rational explanation. I showed Sid. He was mystified. So I stayed in that place of feeling HaShem’s involvement in our daily lives, down to our very IPhones, reminded that He is to be front and center this morning, that I was not to be attending to the secular on Shabbat.

Sid couldn’t let it go, and finally noticed that “inadvertently” the “Unread” filter had been pressed. When I pressed “All” in the “Sent” file, the normal “Sent” messages appeared. Did that make it any less miraculous?

Absolutely not! First, why in my “Unread Sent” folder would only Shabbat encouragements appear? Clearly, I may have read some, not others, yet they were all there. And in 5 years there was no other “Sent” message that was “Unread”? That made no rational sense either. I think when we start to try to figure Him out, our Abba gives us ways to rationalize His mystery, which for some people, makes Him less mysterious. For me, I embrace his being inscrutable. We are not supposed to fully understand Him. When we try to do so, He may give us some semi-rational explanation but the truth is we cannot figure out His ways. After all, He is God! But oh the joy when we feel His presence. . .

I had to go jog on the beach. And He did not disappoint. I was in His space and He in mine. At one point at about 10 feet ahead I saw what were clearly men’s sandals that the waves were about to wash out to sea as they were perched at the water’s edge facing the shore. As I ran a little closer to save them from being swept away, as the waves washed over them, I could see it was just a rock formation “randomly” on the beach. I let my mind go back to the beautiful soundtrack and meditations with HaShem as I jogged further. On my way back, 20 minutes later, I happened to think back to how odd that had been, that a rock formation looked exactly like a pair of men’s sandals facing the shore, the ocean to their back. You guessed it, at that very moment as I was thinking those thoughts, I realized I was once again coming near to the place I thought I had seen the sandals. Just then the music I was listening to sang these words:

“Yeshua stood upon the misty shore” (from “Peter’s Song” by Steve McConnell)

At that very moment those words played . . .

“And He called us in to share a holy message,
His heart was set on seeing me restored . . .

Peter,do you love me?
Lord, you know I do.

Feed my lambs and tend my sheep.
Feed my lambs.”

Yes, we are here to be restored and to feed His sheep. Such a perfectly timed reminder. Such a vivid suggestion of Yeshua wearing those sandals on the shore. . .

How beautiful to live in this space. Each of us can choose to do so, and be restored in Him who dwells with us daily. As we invite Him in, He reveals Himself, to admonish and encourage, to lead us and keep us on the path with Him, and to charge us to feed His sheep. We partake of His daily miracles.

Shabbat shalom.
Diane

P.S. I wrote this message on Shabbat afternoon, yes writing, but very much in a holy space. I continued to observe the rest of Shabbat. My sister called me in the afternoon and as I took that call, I noticed an email had arrived with information about our building. I deliberately did not look at it until after Shabbat, having just been clearly spoken to about such matters this morning. Thank you, Abba, for the presence of your faithful reminders.

P.P.S. Of course, by not checking my messages on Shabbat I missed that our beloved congregant and brother in Yeshua Marc Brotman had passed. He will be missed and blessings to his beloved family.