The Donuts that Changed Our Lives

Approximately two weeks ago, my friend Jess and I were talking and she asked me to join her on a trip to Chicago. Where I lived in Indiana wasn't far from Chicago, so I said "Absolutely!" to meeting up with her, her husband Joel, and another friend, Mike.I had never been to Chicago before, so Joel and Mike insisted that we stop by the 'bean' for the obligatory tourist photo op. I think it was more fun to watch people try to take selfies with the bean than it was to see the bean...but maybe that's just me being mean.Saturday we did A LOT of walking! The weather was perfect for lots of walking in my opinion because it was nice and cool so none of us felt like we would die of heat stroke! Jess and Joel's boss Kevin had given them a list of cool restaurants, coffee shops, and gastropubs to hit while we were there  and we hit a bunch of them! I'm fairly certain all we did on Saturday was walk and eat! We hit the Navy Pier and Jess and I rode the Ferris wheel. I'm not normally one to appreciate heights, but the view of the city was AMAZING! I would highly recommend it!Now, Kevin had instructed Joel that we needed to go to a little donut place called The Donut Vault--he claimed it would change our lives! When I say little, I mean HOLE-IN-THE-WALL! It wasn't a dump, but the inside was barely big enough to hold a line. We actually stood in line outside the building for a while before we could even get in.As we stood in line, I noticed the lady that jumped in line right behind us looked pretty familiar, but I wrote it off as coincidence because there was no way it was who I thought it was. However, as a precaution, I eaves-dropped on her conversation with the guy behind us to see if she said anything I would find significant.She didn't really say anything that would indicate who she was or if I really knew who she was. The line kept moving and eventually we got inside and the four of us were crammed in a corner and this lady was standing next to us.The woman I had noticed started chatting with us, asking us if we had been there before and where we were from. It didn't take long that for us to realize that she had attended the same university we had all recently graduated from in Missouri.At this point in the conversation, everyone was completely surprised and stood there for a second being bewildered. Except me...remember that sneaking suspicion I had about her identity, well, knowing she had gone to our school sealed the deal. As unlikely as it was, I knew who this lady was! So before anyone else recovered from the shock, I stepped forward so I could see her and asked if her name was what I thought it was. She was even more shocked that I knew her name, until I told her mine. The woman who had randomly ended up in line behind us was my mom's suitemate in college thirty years ago. She couldn't believe it! It was so crazy! Just try to take in how insane that is. I unexpectedly visited Chicago with friends, randomly stopped at this place, and the person in line right behind us was my mom's suitemate in college!!! It was awesome though! She immediately hugged me, started asking about my family, and took a picture with me.Deborah very graciously bought all us donuts and coffee and chatted with us a bit as we stood outside of the Donut Vault. She then gave us each of us some extra spending money because she remembered what it was like when she was our age and just out of college. Before we parted ways (she had to get her donuts back to her hungry kids for breakfast) she said a quick prayer for us. Now, I can't even begin to tell you what she said during that prayer but I got the distinct impression that God met us on that sidewalk in Chicago. It was like everything around us was going at it's normal-rushed pace and in our little prayer circle time had slowed down and God was hanging out with us.We walked away and it took a while for anyone to say anything. Even then only two sentences came out. Jess said, "Guys, we just got blessed!" and Joel added, "I guess that donut place did change our lives!"It was such a random experience but it was an amazing reminder that God is in the little stuff that happens everyday. He's always present, willing to be apart of your life if you simply invite him into your day.