In an Unfamiliar City

I am enjoying my walks through the historic sections of Raleigh while my daughter attends her convention. I have logged at least fifteen miles a day since I have no interest in the convention, and do wish to take advantage of exploring a city I have never visited for any length of time. I chanced upon three weddings yesterday, including an older woman in a lovely gown stepping out of the limo just as I walked by. She was my age, yet clearly about to be married.
"You look lovely," I told her. She beamed at me, with the look of someone who feels their whole world is about to transform.

I passed a young Chinese couple by a giant globe sculpture. The woman was taking a picture of her husband and young child. The little family was but a speck by that giant world.
"Would you like me to take the picture so you can be in it too?" I asked, pausing in my walk.
"Oh yes!!!!" she said. I snapped the picture, thinking how optimistic and eager the young family looked.

I then passed the smallest dog I have ever seen being kindly greeted by a pitbull. You just never know what interesting things you might see if you keep your eyes open and your feet moving.

The little vignettes of the day all spoke of hope to me. An older woman finding love, a young couple all together starting out as a family in this great, wide world, with all the promise of beginnings, a tiny dog that could have been consumed in a snap making friends with a much larger dog maligned (unfairly or not) for its aggressive nature.

I can hear you, Lord. You are telling me that in all the stages and vicissitudes of life, there can be the expectation of joy. You are in the midst of it all. Beloved, do not lose heart because you are old and the murmurs of love are faint, or young and the world is so huge, or tiny and giants surround you. God made them all, and put them all together, the young, and the old and the tiny, and the huge. They are all created for a purpose that sometimes seems disjointed at street level, in an unfamiliar city, but from the perspective of eternity, all the pieces fit together perfectly.

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Isaiah 55:7-9 
7Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. 8"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.…