Several
days ago we were contacted by our son Josh who lives in Waco. He let us know the wonderful news that his
son Zak had given his life to Jesus and was going to be baptized. We were, of course, invited to be a part of viewing
the festivities. And of course we wouldn’t
miss it. A tentative date was chosen and
I set in on locating a substitute preacher for Seaside.
In
the meantime, Josh called back and had a second request. Could we by chance come up a few days
early? He and Christi were hoping to
take a quick overnight excursion together, if we could be at their house for
the kids, that is. Not a problem on this
end. In fact I also heard back from the
sub preacher and all was set for Baptism Sunday as well.
Now
fast forward to about this past Tuesday.
Just about the time I was beginning to come out of the fog of being
sick. I received a FaceBook message from
the niece of an old friend asking if I could do her wedding on Jamaica Beach in
June. My calendar was clear, so I pulled
out my wedding file to start her a page.
And that’s when I saw it. Right there
in the back of the book, on one of my file pages, in my handwriting …
information about a wedding. I had no
recollection of the event, but honestly that’s not so unusual. After all, that’s why I have the file, so I don’t
have to remember everything. But the
date. You guessed it. Same date we had just confirmed with
Josh. Oh, the Sunday was open, but the
preliminary, just-the-two-of-them trip? I
couldn’t be there after all.
And
that resulted in quite the flurry of activity.
I notified Josh. Our first Plan B
was for me to just drive back on Friday for the rehearsal and wedding, then meet
them at the baptism on Sunday morning.
Josh countered that they really didn’t want me to have to do that. Maybe they could just reschedule everything for
the next weekend. I emailed the sub
preacher to see if he could switch weeks.
Ah, the things we do for our kids and grandkids.
While
I waited for some responses, I suddenly had a hunch about something. For no particular reason other than said
hunch, I texted the bride to touch base and see how things were going. After an hour or two she replied. Ready for this one? She told me they hired someone else back when
they first contacted me. They didn’t
need me after all. Well, OK. I quickly notified my sub preacher (hadn’t heard from him yet anyway) and
said, “Never mind.” Then I texted Josh
with this:
“Well,
well, well. Guess what news I just
got? I don’t have a wedding on February 17th
any more. So … never mind.”
His
response was pretty classic:
“Well,
that’s a much simpler solution.”
Master
of understatement, that boy.
Psalms
28:8-9 says, “The Lord is the strength of
his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. Save your people and bless your inheritance; be
their shepherd and carry them forever.”
Father,
thank you for surprises. I really do
like them, especially when they cause everything to fall back into place. Amen.
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