An unusual experience this morning left me speechless {you’re smiling I can tell!}. For someone who loves to write, being at a loss for words is humorous isn’t it? Yes, I’m chuckling at myself as well! Yet I’m compelled to write about this mysterious occurrence, if for no other reason than to transpose it from mind to paper. I’ll endeavor to convey what happened and you can draw your own conclusions!

Perhaps more amusing than my being “speechless” is my internal struggle for a logical explanation … one that makes sense. Those who follow my blog know that I am indeed a very spiritual person, “tuned in” to God, and a believer in the existence of many mysteries in the universe that aren’t easily explained, so that’s nothing new. I’ve actually had several inexplicable experiences in my life time but that’s for a different blog. So I’m very attuned to my spiritual nature. However, there’s another side to me.

Those close to me understand that I am a logical thinker and love rational explanations, especially where computer technology is concerned. I like concrete answers to puzzling circumstances. After all, if I can create something once, surely I can recreate the circumstances, right? Hmmmm!

Yesterday I wrote a post in my blog after spending some time last weekend sorting through treasures from my mother’s effects. After creating the post I felt a delayed sense of loss, and sadness surfaced, which I intentionally dismissed by starting dinner. Food solves all, right?

I don’t use my iPad much these days, except for playing Pandora via Bluetooth through my Bose speaker and since my wonderful house cleaner was due today, I checked the charge so she could have music while she cleaned. It was fine, so I decided to surf the internet for a few minutes. It refused to connect to Wi-Fi for some reason and knowing an update was available, I thought that might solve things, so took time to download the latest IOS. Bored with the time it was taking, I left it to its own devices, so to speak! In fact, I left it there on the sofa and forgot all about it until today.

I awoke feeling groggy and stumbled out to the living room looking for a morning cup of tea. Chuck was ON it! Mr. Amazing Stud Hub! I sat down to await the arrival of my tea when what should I espy but the blacked out iPad. I reached for it and fired it up. Always happy when technology works! The new IOS had installed so decided to check out the Wi-Fi. Clicked on Safari and hit antheatripp.com to test how fast the site loaded. That’s when it happened … the weirdness! 

I expected to see the tree-lined country lane graphic which is the banner default in my blog template. This graphic only shows on the home page, along with most recent blog post. No banners on the individual page posts. This was not what showed up. What I saw startled me so much, I couldn’t stop staring at it. Dumbfounded is the word. Yes – I was speechless and dumbfounded! This is what I saw ….

When I regained my composure, I held up the iPad and showed it to Chuck. “How in the world did this get there?” I exclaimed. I think he thought I was accusing him of putting it there, but I knew better! Stud-Hub not so technologically savvy – definitely couldn’t have made that happen! No, I was just trying to understand how my beautiful mother got in the banner, because I know the steps required to replace the template banner, especially to position it properly from a photo not even close to the proper dimensions.

I don’t like being stumped! What in the world ….? My first thought was that I’d somehow published the post with Mum’s photo in the body of the post – by mistake – but clearly I’d examined the published article and it wasn’t there yesterday.  Last I checked the three graphics in the post were pictures of memorabilia, not people. Perhaps the photo got mixed in there somehow from the iPad? No – that photo isn’t amongst my iPad photo collections.

“I know” I thought aloud, “I’ll check on my iPhone – see what it looks like there”.

The iPhone revealed all was exactly as I had published yesterday with the tree-lined country lane there in the banner as big as life! I ran to my office, pulled up the blog on my Dell desktop and laptop. Consistent with my iPhone. Now I’m really freaked out. There must be a logical explanation! As I returned to my iPad, I half expected to see the tree banner back in place, but no it was my mother’s face still there.

I took a photo of my iPad with my iPhone, the picture you see above.

I noticed Hero Hubs tearing up and emotional {I love sensitive men} and he said “Your Mom wanted you to know she approves of your writing! There are some things that just can’t be explained”.

Then I refreshed the browser and away it went and the banner returned to normal showing the tree-lined lane. I have wondered all day how I can logically explain this mystery, but I can’t … so I will accept it as a beautiful sign from God, that my mother approves of yesterday’s post!

Thank you Lord, for blessing me in such an amazing way.

I accept Your gift gracious God. I am totally humbled by Your power and by Your capacity to love each one of us personally. You know us better than we know ourselves, you understand our needs,  you love us so deeply that you grant us the desires of our hearts. I delight in your magnificence O Lord. You are God Almighty and Lord of the Universe. To You be the glory forever … and ever.

“Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?” Job 26:14