When It Looks Different Than You Thought…

Years ago, one of my oldest friends and I drove up to a historic mill to find the beautiful old building locked shut, the foundation arching beneath it and the creek unopened to wading.

Our best laid plans often go astray. No fault of our own sometimes. We just find that what we FIND is not what we hoped for. Not what we were promised and everything is a little messier than we thought it would be.

But what I love about unforeseen snags in our destination is that we can find beautiful anywhere if we so choose to look past what man made and see what God made... and what He chooses for us to see.

This little stone archway had gathered moss. It was cool in the sunlight and a perfect space to remember that we cannot place titles on the destinations God sends us to. It won't always be the way we expect. It won't always be the structure we saw in the ad. It won't always be easy or pretty. And we cannot put a lid on our God when things don't go according to plan. This is actually the time we really NEED to take the lid off our God most of all.

If creation can praise Him anyway when nothing adds up... Let's praise Him anyway too. When the title you give something doesn't seem fitting, when you find yourself at a "free place" where you can do nothing but stare at moss... Don't reexamine your God. Reexamine your surroundings. Surround yourself with the promise "He is faithful." Then, be faithful to surrender what He requires.