I have lived long enough to know that in life, new discoveries in familiar places are always possible. Last week, I was removing some old dry leaves from the bushes along our gravel driveway. As I pulled back the brush to get to the leaves, I saw the numbers “1960” scribbled into a cement wall that lines our driveway. They were written by someone who built the wall a long time ago. Jan and I have owned our home for 20 years and we never knew the inscription was there. 

In our lives, we can begin to think there is nothing left to discover in our familiar places and relationships. Without entertaining the possibility that a new discovery is possible, life can become predictable and dulled into a boring repetition of the same never expecting a surprise. Just last week I learned something new about Jan and it resulted in a smile, a hug, and a kiss. These discoveries in places and relationships where we thought we knew all there was to know are some of the sweetest of discoveries.

Today, look around at what is familiar in your life and its surroundings. Something is there hidden and waiting for your discovery. That discovery will come in the normal activities of life like it was for me when I pushed aside some brush to see for the first time, a 61-year-old inscription in the cement. As I stood in my driveway, a very familiar place to me, I began to wonder. I wondered who the person was and what was taking place in their life the moment they wrote the numbers in the wet cement. I also began to wonder if there might be a message for me from the Lord of something that He wanted me to discern regarding those numbers and that date. That simple discovery turned a boring act of labor into an exercise in joy and faith.