Nothing on the radar

We helped pack boxes, loaded a trailer, and helped our daughter move this past weekend.  Far away.  We left early Friday morning before dawn, and by 3.30 in the afternoon, we were unloading the Uhaul at her new apartment in a new city. 

Right before supper, one of our other daughters called from yet another city far away and alerted us to an expected weather front coming through the next day.  When we checked the forecast, we realized that we couldn't stay.  We needed to leave the next morning.  Time for Plan B.

Saturday dawned a crisp blue day, well above freezing.  Do we really have to leave?

We hugged our daughter, jumped onto the interstate highway, and headed back the same way we drove nine hours the day before.

For most of the drive, we wove along on dry pavement under clear blue skies, the temperature hovering in the mid-40s.  The afternoon moved slowly by.  And still, no storm in sight.  I checked the online weather report on my phone.  Nothing on the radar.

Did we make a mistake?  Could we have stayed longer like we had planned?  Like we wanted to?

After eight hours of driving, an hour from home, we stopped for gas.  Back on the interstate, before we even reached the next exit, it was like we had driven right into a thick white curtain.  We crawled along unplowed roads the rest of our way.  The last hour's drive turned into two.

But we made it.

We awoke this morning, and it was even worse.  And when we looked up the weather radar today, we saw what we would have been going through.  We realized what we had avoided.

 


















God knew what was coming.  I'm glad we heeded.  The dry roads did not mean a mistake in God's leading.  Just His protection.

Following God fully
                  means even when...
   even under a clear blue sky,
   even when it doesn't make sense,
   even when I don't want to.
Following God fully
                   is behaving
       as if I knew what was coming,
trusting Him that much,
       in what He knows
                           and I cannot.
The sky was blue,
the road dry,
the temperature not even close,
         right down to the last hour.
My heart was questioning,
    had we been duped by a faulty forecast?
And then....
         when we least suspected,
         when we were almost home,
  it hit.
The clear conditions were not a mix-up
                in communication.
It was His shield,
       His protection over us.
I had no idea.
                 We usually don't.
But I know
             I can trust Him through it.
God's purposes
         are even deeper than that.
God's path leads us through the storm
                    even before it is,
sensitive to His leading,
trusting His purposes,
following even in mystery.
Realizing,
          it is not a mystery to Him.
It is not even Plan B.


Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
    and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways
                   acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths.

                            Proverbs 3. 5-6