On the Corner of Connecticut & N

I am sitting in a Starbucks on the corner of Connecticut & N, N.W. in downtown Washington, D.C. as I write this. Outside the sidewalks and streets are full of movement - cars, people, crosswalk signs, even the water of a fountain sparkling in the sun outside the NAB building. People flood the sidewalks, on cellphones, hailing cabs, pushing carts, chatting with friends, all coming from somewhere and going somewhere else.

This Starbucks is right on the corner with tall windows that look in every direction here at the corner - up N Street, down Connecticut, across 18th Street and in every direction there are people - busy with ordinary life. As I watch the people go by I wonder what thoughts these anonymous people have about God, about who He is and who He is in their lives. I can imagine that every person who walks by outside these windows has thought about God, has wondered about Him, has walked away from Him or has trusted their lives into His care. But I cannot tell from my place at this table in Starbucks which people are walking with Him and which people are walking away. God knows the secrets of their hearts, the longings, the disappointments, the hopes, the dreams, the fears, the loss, the expectations each one of these individual people - their faces filled with thoughts that carry them away from these streets - thoughts of remembering where they've been and thinking of where they are going. But how many are thinking about where they are now? Do they know that even now, as they look at their watches, take their calls on their cellphones, wait for the crosswalk signal to change, or jump into a cab, that even now the Lord knows every moment of their life, that He has a plan for their life, that there is no where they can go to escape His love and care? These faces that pass by are unknown to me, but not to the Lord. For each individual who goes by carries with them a story - a story I may not know, but a story known to God.

Do I know this too? Though I am surrounded by strangers - how far away are they from being friends? Are they only a prayer away?