With more and more frequency the last couple years, I am encountering various people I know when I go grocery shopping. Apparently, my huge metropolis is shrinking. The suburbs of Hotlanta are closing in on me. I’m practically living in small town America these days.

The grocery store is not the only place that brings me unexpectedly face to face with people I know, but I am realizing the grocery store venue provides a wider spectrum of response choices than smaller locations such as a coffee shop or restaurant where a friendly greeting of some sort is typically offered between the two parties. In the grocery store, saying hello is not a given. My reactions fall between intentionally avoiding people and intentionally scaring them, which I find puzzling. So, as usual, I am pondering the mystery to unearth the treasure.

During that split second of recognition while both of us are intently engaged on what is most likely an unwanted and quite possibly difficult mission in a store that infects us all with decision fatigue, I am forced to evaluate my relationship with that familiar person and decipher how to engage…or not.

On one occasion when I aimed to avoid the person, it was not at all because I did not like the person or had any issue with the person. Instead, my goal was to avoid my painful past, which this person did not cause but was unfortunately connected to. Our conversation would surely touch on topics that would produce further sorrow for me. Best to avoid, I thought. But God planned my steps differently than what I desired. Despite my best efforts, the person eventually spotted me and swooped down on me like an eagle on a helpless field rodent, forcing me to swallow all my discomfort and make small talk for a few minutes. I survived, and the interaction even brought me joy, proving I could co-exist with my past after all. I was surprised.

Another day equally caught me off guard. When I walked into the grocery store, I immediately spotted a person I knew. Trust had not been automatic for either one of us, and I did not feel like battling trust issues at that moment. Not that I ever do. Plus I had already interacted in a previous shopping excursion with this same exact person. Why was God crossing our paths again? And why now when I needed to quickly go in and out of the store for a few items after I had hurriedly dropped off one child at school and soon needed to pickup another for piano lessons?

Not yet being spotted, I considered how to proceed. I dismissed the option to avoid because I felt it would undermine the trust that existed, even if I would be the only one who knew. Knowing how much this person enjoyed scaring others, I decisively chose to do likewise. Since I was on a significant time crunch, it was one of the quickest interactions I have ever had, my cart barely stopping, if at all. As I rushed off, I marveled at what I had just impulsively done. How many people would I feel comfortable frightening while they focused on trying to make a vital grocery decision? My spontaneous display of familiarity proved to me how much trust this person had actually managed to earn despite the odds. I was surprised.

Mistakenly, I have thought grocery shopping was about groceries. Only recently am I perceiving that God is accomplishing more than our completed shopping list. He is revealing our hearts, challenging us to deeper trust in Him, and shaping us into Christlikeness in the ordinary moments of life. In a mundane chain grocery store, My Creator helped me more firmly believe that though I cannot escape the painful parts of my past, I can live with them. Though I do not easily trust people as I once did, nevertheless, I can vulnerably and courageously do so once more. Moving on is possible. Trusting again is possible. While my cart was filling up with bananas, milk, and eggs, my heart was filling up with encouragement, strength, and awe.

What is God accomplishing in the seemingly routine moments of your life?