Have you ever experienced something just too
unusual to be human? Maybe some sort of
remarkable timing that made you pinch yourself to see if it's real? One Saturday in December, we awoke to
that very thing. The alarm buzzed at
6:30, and we grabbed the guitar, our music, and a couple of granola bars to
hop in the car. Without news of the extent
of the night’s rainfall, we knew nothing about road closures. From the highway, we saw lower roads with cars
stranded. We ran into flashing lights
and road blocks, and when we hit a major detour, I highly suspected we’d
be late for music. Possibly too, we might be
absent entirely. And my heart sank to
imagine the precious faces of people we'd miss:
friends and guests who give and receive food, clothes, and the love of the Lord. But along this detour, I
started remembering driving this way once to a funeral. I recalled no low sections of road that would
flood, so my mind sighed in relief, though we soon encountered a train, but there the Lord
reminded us of another alternate route we’d taken to a different funeral. Now I'm smiling huge to realize we weren't going to be late for music after all! Quite amazing, really. Considering our
trek was across the city, from far north to north central to east side, we were amazed at how the Lord directed traffic in our favor. And as my heart bubbled in glee, I kept realizing
more. While praying 2 days before, I felt inclined to prepare Rita Springer’s song “I Have to Believe.” I charted the chords and loaded the piano Friday
night, and now it’s crossing my mind
that if indeed the Lord imparted that song for today, then actually no amount of torrential
rain could've ever thwarted the singing of it, meaning that the night's rain was
never really a deterrent but maybe just twisted into temptation for us to lose
focus. Still too, there was the added
blessing of remembering I didn’t even have this piano till 2 years ago
when a friend said the Lord inclined her to give it to me from her
grandson. How sweet is that! I felt wonderfully saturated in
blessing, just immensely loved in the details. I stood in awe of how the
Lord set our sequence of events in motion, drawing from our travel on these detoured roads in years past, yet purposing for a song today. Even toward the importance of attending
funerals, I felt a nudge of encouragement. Second
Corinthians 3:5 tells us, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim
anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” And so may you too experience the joy of seeing the Lord
at work around you. So precise is His orchestration. You’re in my prayers.
