If there was one word to describe the evening I would have chosen ‘weird’. It’s not that it started that way or that there was any sign of things heading that direction at first. My evening began quite normally, me eating dinner, chatting with my husband and the kids, washing the dishes and catching up with email on my computer. It’s then that I began noticing a change in the atmosphere.

Earlier, as soon as I got home from my errands in the afternoon and before I started on dinner, I put on some worship music to help me unwind. I’d put the list on repeat so my music was still going as I sat at my computer after dinner. The song playing was speaking right to me, like a piercing of a sword hitting my innermost thoughts and feelings. The sensation was intense and I stopped what I was reading on the screen, closed my eyes and soaked in the pulse and flow of the music, allowing the words to soothe my soul.

I opened my eyes for a moment, to see if anyone was watching me, but was planning to go back to shutting the world out again to allow the song to serenade me. That’s when I saw the first one. It was a feather sitting toward the back of my desk, close to the wall.

But I should go back, tell you why the simple feather caught my attention in the first place. Something happened earlier in the day, an incident that set me up for the weirdness that came later.

I’m a stay-at-home mom so I did my normal day to day things. I drove the kids to school, came home, did a few loads of laundry and then headed out for a jog through the neighborhood. I try to jog three times a week and sometimes I do it with a friend but that takes more time. There’s always a visit that follows and at times a cup of tea or iced drink. Time restraints didn’t allow me to have a friend join me. Today I headed out by myself and I went further than usual.

Our subdivision lies at the edge of town and beyond the paved streets and our cul-de-sac is untouched country. Where the paved main road leading to our neighborhood ends, it continues with a gravel road as far as the eye can see. I jogged over smooth pavement for a while, came to the end, stopped to stare at the gravel road stretching into the distance and made the decision to keep jogging.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping in the trees that lined the first gravel section. It was hot but I was already warm from the twenty minutes I’d already run. What would a few more minutes matter and I had so much energy left. I was planning to run as far as I was able and then decided I’d just walk back if I ran out of steam.

The going was a bit tough at first. The gravel made it somewhat precarious for my ankles. They were prone to twisting if overexerted and the bits of tiny rock and pebbles could be unpredictable. I jogged carefully for the first bit but then got the hang of it and started to set a steady pace.

From time to time I looked down to make sure I wasn’t stepping on a larger rock. I didn’t need to be out here with a busted ankle with no way to get back. Being careful and watching the terrain seemed prudent. I’d looked down again to scan the path before me. When I raised my eyes again, I noticed someone on the road ahead of me, jogging toward me. It seemed odd that I hadn’t noticed him earlier. The jogger was still a good distance off, close to a bridge that spanned over a small creek.

I’d kind of set my mind to run till that point, the creek, and then turn around and head back home.

As the man got closer, we were running toward each other, I noticed he was dark-haired, tall and lanky. It made me a little nervous. Running out in the country and meeting a stranger on a deserted piece of road was not my idea of a comfortable situation. I sent a prayer to the heavens and waited to sense a warning or a knowing peace. Nothing out of the ordinary came to me so I kept running.

The distance between the two of us closed quickly and, as the man approached, he slowed his pace and began to walk. His eyes bore into mine and then he spoke.

“Take note of the feathers.”

I slowed to a walk myself and asked, “What?”

“Feathers.”

“I don’t understand.” I’m sure my confusion must have shown.

He turned and pointed back to the bridge he’d come from. “Back there on the ground are a bunch of feathers. The wind is picking them up and they’re flying around.”

“Why are there feathers on the ground?” I asked, still not sure of the significance and why this man would bother to mention it.

“It’s interesting.” He smiled then, broad and bright, like he knew something about the feathers that he wasn’t willing to tell.

“Okay,” I said, walking past him and resetting my pace. I didn’t look back right away, wasn’t sure the man was all together upstairs and didn’t want to encourage him to continue the conversation. Although what he’d said burned in my mind. That seemed odd but I brushed it off as a bizarre encounter with a stranger.

I’d run for a minute before I ventured to slow, turn and glance back to see where he was, just in case he’d decided to follow me. I couldn’t see him anywhere, he was gone. I stopped fully then and scanned the scenery around me. Had he taken to a field, gone cross-country? Had he been heading to a friend’s home? There were no houses that close that would explain his speedy disappearance. Was he hiding in the ditch, waiting for me on my return? That possibility made me nervous. Pushing the thought away, I turned and kept running.

I was closing the gap quickly to the bridge. As I got closer, I noticed something in the air just past the span of wood planks. My running shoes hit the timber boards and the sound heightened my awareness of the change in the air. I slowed to a walk and continued across the bridge.

The closer I got to the stuff drifting on the breeze, the more fully I realized that the man was right. There were feathers flying about, filling the air with a soft, swirling, twisting mass of white. Crossing the wooden expanse, I stopped on the opposite side, where the gravel continued, and noticed the grass beside the road full of white feathers. This was the source of the cloud of white twirling around me.

I couldn’t help but smile at the surreal experience. Wondering where all the feathers came from, I walked over the grass and down to the creek bed. I was greeted with a happy sound. Water was gurgling over the stones and rushing under the bridge to the west. It was surprising to see so much water still in the creek during mid-summer. The water level usually lowered significantly during the hot season.

Standing there, I couldn’t see anything that would have produced the amount of feathers I saw. No nests were huddled in the long grass by the creek and I’d noticed no bird kill on the road. Maybe a fowl flew into a vehicle’s path, shed some feathers and the carcass was snatched up by a forager. But that didn’t explain why the grass was so littered with feathers. I also hadn’t noticed any blood anywhere to signify a kill.

Suddenly I heard rustling near the bridge on the opposite side. Two, white shapes lifted into the air and flew directly above me. Staring at them, I realized I was looking at two doves. I’d never seen a dove before and to see two at the same time made me gaze in awe at the sight. They wove back and forth in the air above me like a choreographed bird dance. Their forms were perfect, not one feather out of place. I knew then that they couldn’t be the source of all the feathers I’d seen on the ground and air but, yet, here they were performing a flying ballet for me. Standing mesmerized by the sight, I watched as they wove and swooped gracefully above me.

Just as suddenly as they’d appeared, they whooshed off across the water further east and landed in the long grass a fair distance away. I shook my head in wonder and waited for a while to see if they’d reappear for act two. They stayed hidden in the grass so I finally turned, left the creek behind and headed back to the road.

The feathers were still floating on the soft breeze. One landed on my shoulder. I picked it off and looked at it. It was medium in length, pure white in color and it felt soft to the touch. Releasing it, it floated away from me, joining the others in the wind. I could have stayed longer, enjoyed the surreal sight, but I had things to get done, shopping to do.

I jogged at a steady pace all the way to the entrance of my subdivision before I thought of the man I’d met out on the road. Stopping, I looked back and wondered where he’d disappeared to. At least he hadn’t accosted me on my run back. I was thankful for that.

After getting home, I showered, had some lunch, did another load of laundry and then headed out to do my errands. I picked up the kids from school on my way home, put my groceries away and then started on dinner.

The digression from normal didn’t start till I was sitting at my computer and opened my eyes. The feather I saw sitting on my desk mesmerized me. I reached for it and held it in front of me. What was a feather doing in my office? What did it mean? Thoughts of the stranger on the road came back to me and it made we wonder of the implication of the whole thing. I brushed it off then.

Maybe a feather got lodged on my person somehow. I probably still had a feather stuck in my hair from earlier and it had just extricated itself and floated onto my desk. But how could that be possible? I’d showered earlier and changed fully. I was convinced that this single feather had somehow managed to hang on to my person and made its way to this room.

Then I noticed something to my right and turned to look. Another white feather was floating in mid air toward the floor. That seemed so odd to me. Where were the feathers coming from? I couldn’t have brought in that many feathers with me, could I?

That’s when I noticed the song flowing from my worship list, a song called ‘Let Your Glory Fall’. My skin broke out in goose-bumps and I glanced toward the ceiling one more time. Three feathers close to the ceiling were swirling, moving and slowly floating down toward me. I just stared, amazed at the surreal and unbelievable phenomenon. I sensed Heaven’s presence surround me and suddenly I knew that what I’d been struggling with for so long wasn’t that big an issue after all. All my difficulties, my pain and my questions faded in importance in the understanding of what the feathers signified.

God was with me, all around me. He was aware of my struggle and my pain. His love was enough and He would make all things work out for good. Under his wing I would find refuge. It came as a sudden knowing, an inner peace that flooded me and filled me up. I closed my eyes again and soaked in the tangible peace that swirled around me. I was going to be okay. The situations in my life that seemed so impossible would somehow be resolved.

I knew then that I’d encountered something weird, out of the ordinary and heavenly this day. I wondered then about the man on the road. Was he an angel sent to encourage me? Maybe he was only sent to point out the feathers, so that I wouldn’t miss them, wouldn’t miss the significance of them, to help me connect the dots.

The bizarre experience made me smile and I lifted my eyes to the ceiling with a whispered thanks to the God who saw me and knew.