things that come in threes

Good things come in threes they say...
i've noticed that sometimes nudges from God come in threes too.
The other night i was texting with a friend who lives far away. We got to talking about how God is so funny in that for Him it's so rarely about what we do - or how our actions turn out... It's usually about where our heart is.  We talked about how that tiny shift in perspective (away from success or failure - and focused securely on heart) gives a different twist to our prayer lives.
We finished our conversation and my mentor texted me...and we got talking about the difference between apathy and opening ourselves up to really have relationship with God... She sent me this:

The next morning, over coffee, Neil said to me, "My friend and i got into an interesting discussion about heaven..."
i did a double take 'cause heaven isn't Neil's usual conversation fodder.
"Yeah? What about heaven?"
"Well... we got talking about how certain behaviours might honour God more than others - but i asked him what difference does it make since once we get to heaven it won't mean you get a nicer house or a greener lawn - isn't the point just to get there?"
i was like a third grader that has the right answer - holding my arm up in the air waving it with eyes glowing...
"No! That's not the only point! The point is to build relationship!"
i explained it to him like i've heard it explained before... that making the harder choices to honour God, to build relationship with the One who loves us, to obey when it doesn't seem like an obvious win...? Those choices are building spiritual muscles that we're gonna need in heaven. i told him how in The Great Divorce - CS Lewis imagined that some would find the ground difficult to walk on - or the air hard to breathe - because those spiritual muscles were weak and needing exercise. The beauty of learning to exercise those muscles here and now - is that we're going to want and need them someday - if not here... then there...
So three little conversations - all of them pushing me into a Conversation with Him.

Father? Do you want me? Because i'm here... and i'm yours... i'm ready.