I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

​Psalm 66:17-20 (New International Version)

Pacing back and forth in my kitchen, feeling overwhelmed with uncertainty about where my current path in life was heading, I was talking to God in my thoughts. 

As my pace and my thoughts got quicker and stronger, I remember abruptly looking up to the ceiling and saying out loud, “God, I wish I could just sit across from you at my table and talk with you about this”. 

​I really needed him. I wanted him to just flat out tell me what to do as the world seemed to be spinning around me.

​Then, as I normally did, I took deep breaths and carried on.  I packed a school lunch, dropped the kids off at school and started tending toward normal daily work tasks.  I don’t really remember much from the rest of that workday, except that it was a Wednesday, and I worked thru lunch on Wednesdays that school year so I could leave a little early at the end of the day.

​Wednesdays were busy.  I picked up a small car full of kids after school and headed for the city library.  I brought snacks to bribe all the kids (in an attempt to get most of them to go off and read on their own elsewhere in the library).  That left a quiet space for me to bribe the littlest one to sit and work on reading with me one-on-one.  Side note: kids who don’t like reading, will practice reading for fruit snacks.

​This particular Wednesday was a little different.  I was still feeling overwhelmed with circumstances and just wanted to enjoy time with all the kids that day.  I didn’t have the extra energy to have a one-on-one reading session, so we were all sitting at a short, child-sized round table in the children’s section of the library just chatting on working on some homework.

​We hadn’t been there long when a tall gentleman strolled into the library.  I saw him walk into the library lobby go right past the front desk and come directly over to the children’s section.  I am not even sure now why my head looked up and over from our conversation to see him walk nearly halfway across the building. We didn’t know him, but he started making a little small talk with us.  Next thing I knew, he sat down at our table, directly across from me, and started chatting with us.

I honestly don’t remember the whole conversation, mostly about events happening in town, the weather, and some friendly jokes with the kids.  What I remember most is that in the short time we spent together, two adults crouched at a child-sized table with children as our attentive audience, we spoke together about Jesus. I did not have time to get a full understanding of his belief system, but I did gather that he knew and valued Jesus in his life. 

We spoke for probably 20 minutes, all the kids gathered around just listening and wondering who this stranger was who offered some helpful tips with their homework.  Starting to become aware of how long we had been sitting there talking with him, worry began to creep into my mind that we may be running behind schedule for our next stop.  I let him know it was time for us to pack up and leave the library.  As we said our cordial goodbyes, I wished him luck.  He then asked what my name was and I told him, then asked the same. 

He said, my name is K.O.K. “King of Kings”, my mother named me that.

​My heart dropped to my feet.  It took only seconds for my mind to instantly recount the desperate conversation I had with God just a handful of hours earlier that very day.  Remembering hearing myself crying out in need for Him, with an audible desire to sit across the table to have a conversation with Him. Now, just hours later, I found myself sitting across from “King of Kings” (a name designated to Jesus Christ in the Bible).

Unbelievable!

Although the gentleman I spoke with at the library was not Jesus, God had used this man with the name of the one true King, to let my soul understand that He was right beside me that morning, hearing every word from my mouth and my heart.  My heart felt a comprehension that was new to me, that Jesus had been right there with me, across the table, already actively taking part in ever small detail of my life. 

Just think of how God had to delicately orchestrate that moment, all to answer the prayer of a simple girl from Nebraska. If the God of the world would create that personal, unexplainable moment I needed so badly for me, he will do the same for you.