A weird way to say "I like you"

This morning I pulled into the parking lot at the university to find a car colorfully covered with post-it notes. Someone went to a lot of time and effort to choose their colors, buy the post-it notes, place them one by one in neat rows, shape the notes to the various areas, and wait for the big surprise. Things like this seem to abound on a college campus. I remember hearing about a faculty/staff who went out one day to find his VW had been moved from it's parking spot up some stairs and about 3 foot off the ground to the cafeteria loading platform. That happened before my time at the university so I'm not sure if the additional 3 foot of bars were already there, added as a safety measure, or added as a result of the car being mysteriously transported to that area.

Things like this usually aren't done because the doer dislikes the recipient, but it's more a weird way to say "Hey, we like you enough to give you something you'll never forget".  Usually these things take a lot of imagination to come up with the idea, time to do it and, unfortunately, a lot of work to undo.  When it happens the recipient is more likely saying "Why Me???" than thinking "Hey, somebody really loves me to go to all this effort" but later on in life everyone looks back at things like this with smiles, laughter and fond memories.

I got to thinking about how God sometimes sends things our way. Not practical jokes, but things unexpected none-the-less, and things that often send our thoughts to "Why Me Lord?". Illness for ourselves or a loved one, loss of a job, financial struggles, a car or house appliances that keep breaking down, the homework that the dog really did chew on and destroy, I'm sure you can add to this list from your own experiences. "Why God? Why me? Why now? This is a really weird way for you to show me that you love me!"  The truth is that God does love us. He allows things to happen so that we can grow stronger in our faith, and become more like Him.

I don't know about you, but we have many instances to which we can look back and see God's hand at work in our lives. It was hard to see Him at the time, but now we know God used those things to mold us into His image and guide us to what He had for us to do and be. Yes, He allowed something to happen, but He also stayed right there with us to help us through it. "Why Me???" I know the answer now, it was because He loves me and He wanted me to know it. He wanted me to grow stronger and be more like Him. He has given me memorable events in my past that I can look back to and say "Wow, look at what God did" - that's why me.