If I don't know who you are I'll make it up

I don't know what's gotten into my Beloved tonight. He's come over all spontaneous and after dinner, suggested we hop in the car and run away from the kids for an hour (leaving the older one to babysit). This took me by surprise - and I don't like surprises. "Coronation Street" was due to start in a little over an hour and I just didn't know if we could make it back in time. Besides, where was he taking me? He knows I can't go shopping with him. I always end up not talking to him for the rest of the day because I hate the way he lures me into the Building Depot with grand talk of a spa pool before he wanders off on his own, leaving me all confused in the "Unfamiliar Thingameebob" aisle. Thankfully it turned out that tonight he was planning a hot date at Dennys for dessert.
 

This was a nice surprise because I like Dennys, not so much for the food, but for the inhouse entertainment - otherwise known as people-watching. Guaranteed, if I ever see you enjoying a quiet meal at Dennys and I don't recognise who you are, I WILL be watching you and I WILL be fabricating an entirely new far-fetched identity for you. Being the creature of habit that I am, I ordered the banana split without wafers while my Beloved, never conscious of his boyish figure, settled on the hot fudge cake sundae. I didn't share his enthusiasm when he pointed out that he is now old enough to qualify for the Senior Citizens' menu. Instead I began to soak up the atmosphere of individuals making up the vignette of a greater performance that makes the world tick over.

The table behind us consisted of a middle-aged couple and a sulky, teenage girl. Nothing too interesting going on there. I think it was the mum's birthday and they were going to have a nice meal whether they wanted to or not. Across the aisle, things were a little more interesting: a woman in her late fifties with two little girls, possibly twins. Now this could be a juicy story. I decided right away that this impeccably groomed lady was single had enjoyed a successful career beyond her biological clock and the little girls were her mid-life crisis IVF twins. I had that all settled...until her partner joined her (she had no wedding ring). Never mind, my story could still work. Only, one of the girls called him Grandad while the other called her Grandma. Ah well, school holiday grandparents. Next table please.

Looks like we hit pay dirt with this one. There was a bit of an age difference with this couple.  Body language told me that they weren't familiar enough to be married. Obviously an internet-inspired date. He was no looker so let's hope his wallet would be fat enough to accommodate her tastes.  Mind you, she didn't look that shallow and he didn't look all that interested.  Then she started talking. I wasn't close enough to hear what she was saying but her accent gave it all away: Russian Bride! Obviously! Just as I was imagining what was on her profile, my banana split arrived and the look on my Beloved's face told me that I should start paying attention to my own table.

I have no idea who any of those people were and I was probably wrong about the assumptions I'd made about the lot of them. Call it prying if you must, but I prefer to think of myself as "inquisitive" or "interested".  I know I'm just a nobody trying to imagine what's going on in others' existence, but imagine how much more interested our Creator is in what's really going down in our lives. He doesn't just take a guess at it and make things up to fill in the gaps, He truly knows.  He knows all about me, all about you and all about the IVF granny. He knows how we think, when we're going to sit, when we're going to stand, when we need Him. His concern for us is way beyond snooping. He cares about every hair growing out of our heads (or not growing in some cases). The hands that flung stars into space are the same hands that reach out to save me.

And if anyone is watching my Beloved and me at Dennys, I'm hoping they're assuming that we're father and daughter because I'm way too young to order from the Senior Citizens' menu.