Guest Post by: Tricia Wilson

A few years ago, while on a work trip to New York City, a colleague mentioned crossing something off his bucket list the evening before. While I understood the concept, it had never been more than a fleeting thought or a flippant comment for me: “Oh, I can cross [whatever] off the bucket list now!” Yet I was intrigued. This was a person I greatly respected, and that gave the idea more credence and weight. I began to tailor my own list.

Around the same time, I was starting to feel rather discontent with a lot of things in my life and, frankly, somewhat stuck. I brought my feelings to God time and time again but was frustrated that I wasn’t able to see any movement or change on the horizon. I decided to take a day off from work on Good Friday and travel from my home in Philadelphia to Washington, DC to see the cherry blossoms in bloom – one of the items on my new bucket list.

I drove to the closest Metro stop but after parking, I got slightly turned around and ended up outside the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) building. It was there that God spoke. Before me was a statue of a hand, palm up and open, with birds flying overhead. Immediately, my thoughts went to Matthew 6:26 (The Message):

Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than the birds.

My stress began to lift as I thought about how very true that was – and just the reminder I needed.

This sculpture in front of NOAA’s SSMC3 building (at 1315 East-West Highway) on its Silver Spring, Maryland campus is called “The Hand of Noah”. It was given this title by its sculptor, Raymond Kaskey, in 1991, and is supposed to symbolize NOAA’s stewardship of the environment.

Tricia Wilson is a writer, a youth leader, an event planner, and a Christ follower – not necessarily in that order.

She loves to cook and craft and hopes to share some of that, along with her musings on life, at triciawil.com…in hopes that you may find some encouragement within. Tricia can’t remember a time growing up when she didn’t have a book in her hand or a story in her heart and believes wholeheartedly that stories are how we relate and understand and experience the “you too?” moments in life that are so precious.