This is a short reading this morning, because I had a very specific thought as I was reading this passage.  Here we see Philip going along and feeling a tug at his heart to go South.  Now, the text says an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, but imagine for a moment that it is written in a less dramatic fashion; imagine that Philip just kind of had that sense that we all have, that goes something like this, “I just feel like this is something I should do...”.  We have all had that.  And Philip follows this feeling.  And we see that he bumps into this guy who is sitting there reading the book of Isaiah.  Now, reading the story it seems obvious what is going on - God is orchestrating something here.  But, think about it from each of these two guys’ point of view.

Philip had felt a nudge, he followed it, and as he is just going along his way he bumps into this guy reading Isaiah.  Philip, I am sure, kind of thought, “Oh wow, that’s cool...let me go talk to this guy.”

This guy whom Philip runs into in this story is just doing his thing, minding his own business, reading his scriptures, and a random dude walks up and starts talking to him about it.

At this point in this story, no one is probably thinking God has had anything to do with this.  It probably feels like a normal day with just a random event happening.

Then Philip connects the dots for this guys, showing him how Isaiah’s prophecy has actually come to fruition, that Jesus was the character in that story, and that Philip is actually a part of a movement that is spreading the word of this event.  Then they baptize this guy, and Philip gets on his way.  Meanwhile, this guy goes back to his home and starts preaching and teaching this news to others.

As I am reading this, I can’t help but just think about the little decisions that each of these two gentlemen made that ultimately led to this incredible outcome.  Philip followed a nudge.  Philip probably had some doubts along the way, but he went along with it anyways.  This eunuch opened up his Bible to read, just being faithful to his routine, faithful to opening God’s Word.  And fate would have it (or, as we know, God orchestrated), these two dudes’ paths collide; and there are many people who’s lives were positively effected by these small acts of faithfulness.

It is a great reminder to me - I never know what hangs in the balance of my faithfulness.  I don’t know what a positive word, an encouragement, a prayer, or any other small act of faithfulness could lead to...there is really no way for me to trace the impact of these moments.  Philip probably, and I am speculating here, didn’t even realize that this guy went off and started preaching and teaching the word like this.  Luke was investigating everything to compose this manuscript and could have put two and two together on this, and Philip may never have known the impact of his faithfulness.  This eunuch changed the lives of who knows how many people simply because he sat down and opened God’s word and a random dude walked up on him while he was studying.  We never know what hangs in the balance of our small acts of faithfulness...what a GREAT reminder this morning!