Encounter at the Bucket Swing–July, 2025

I was with our 2 year old daughter Olivia at a park in our region.  As I was pushing her on the bucket swing, I was meditating on God’s love for us and felt His presence powerfully.  Then I noticed a park worker come and begin to rake the wood chips. I said, “Hi” and he responded back with a smile as he worked.  I prayed quietly for him and began to ask God for some words for him and who God designed him to be.    

I received 4 words and the worker was starting to leave.  I was still pushing Olivia on the swing and prayed quietly for an opportunity.  Suddenly he turned around and came right over to us to fix another  swing that had been wound around the top of the poll.  

I introduced myself, and told him God sometimes speaks to me for random strangers and that I had received some words for him.  He seemed interested so I shared the words.  The words seemed to resonate with him, though he did push back a little bit on the word “dependable” saying sometimes that wasn’t true.  I told him non of us are perfect.  We grow into who God designed us to be, after all.   

I had on my 3 circles gospel shirt that my wife had given me for Father’s Day.  I asked if he knew what the circles were about and He was intrigued and had some guesses.   I shared with him the gospel using these circles on my shirt.  He seemed interested.  

I asked him what he believed and he said he thought there was wisdom in everything, but he lingered and was interested. Then I started to share my story and how I grew up in church with a religious knowledge of Christianity, and then went to college and really lived for myself.  Then my life changed when…(Right then, Olivia began to run off so I chased after her. Apparently somewhere in there, I had taken her out of the swing!)

I came back and said  “My life changed…when i had kids!”   He laughed and I laughed.  I shared seriously that what I meant to say was my life changed when I met Jesus and began following Him and how He transformed my heart.  I didn’t come to Him perfected but He was in the process of changing me.  

He continued to linger and seemed to want to talk more, but then his phone rang and it was his boss and he needed to take the call.  I could tell he felt bad and wanted to talk more but he had to go and I smiled and told him no problem.  He was working after all and I didn’t want to take too much of his time.  

The whole interaction was just a few minutes, but I believe he will not forget it anytime soon!