The Words on the Bathroom Wall

I noticed it a couple of years ago, fresh in high school. Here, in the gym bathroom, the place where my eighth-grade self would sometimes hide in fear of having another anxiety attack, was the word ‘help‘ pencil-scratched in tiny, desperate cursive letters.

I don’t know who wrote it, but what if–What if that person had been there for the same reason?

The thought compelled me to say a prayer for this individual whom I didn’t know, yet whom my God saw and held amid that quiet cry for help.

This moment slipped from my memory until a few weeks ago, when I suddenly wandered into my church bathroom to see a dozen little messages etched onto the wall.

At least a dozen little reminders of the truth, like ‘God has a purpose for you.’

As I read these words, hope warmed up my heart in a way that I can only explain with Proverbs 4:22: “For they [such words] are life to those who find them, and healing to their flesh.”

I had received the experience of the one who finds life-giving words.

So I knew it wasn’t a coincidence when I walked into the bathroom at a park downtown where several cross-country races are held. The words ‘CHRIST IS COMING BACK‘ were on the wall in bold capital letters. A bold message of a bold hope.

You could say I should have been expecting it when I saw the words ‘GOD LOVES YOU” on the wall of a bathroom at another park. It was the final hour leading up to one of my races, a race that I had particularly dreaded for fear of falling short.

And there stood those words, waiting for me.

Reminding me that I am loved.

Those words on the bathroom wall–They proclaimed messages that I needed to hear.

And while they may be vandalism in one person’s eyes, they’re beautiful in another’s.

The words that had once been a cry for help had transformed into a proclamation of assured deliverance.

You never know where–or how–God is going to find you.

But He speaks, if we would only listen and look. <3

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