Whatever it is...

It's in The Plan.

Even when my socks are blown clean off, God is NOT surprised.

And I'll confess, I've had a hard time with this. Some of the stuff in my life just hasn't made sense.

"Um, excuse me, God, but how could that have been on purpose?" I've asked more than once.

I'm fifty, and it was just a few years ago that I had my first really big take-my-breath-away "Aha!" moment. A moment when our faithful God allowed me just the slightest glimpse into a previously unfathomable situation. It was a peek "through a glass darkly" (and via yet another painful episode), but one day, while crying my heart out again on the porch swing, I realized with a start that all along His hands were all over this thing. Mind you, it's that kind of thing that makes non-believers muse, "How could a God of Love...?" And still, I saw His fingerprints.

Whoa.

And just like that, my bitterness and anger dissolved into gratitude. I still feel it.

Understand, of course, that seeing that glimmer of purpose doesn't diminish one whit how horrible that thing was. It was bad, and in some ways, it still is. But suddenly, gratitude was possible, and gratitude is freedom.

Even so...

I have my days. Or, my years. Years when it's one thing after another. Big things and small, it seems it's always something. We've had two or three of those years, back to back to back.

So, I made this sign for my kitchen, a touchstone if you will.

Not because I need to believe it, but because sometimes I need a nudge to remember that I do.

Maybe you could use the reminder yourself. It's free for your personal use, or to share.