If there’s one lesson I’ve learned in life (and then had to learn over and over and over again), it’s to embrace the unexpected.
We all have dreams growing up—I dreamed of marrying a man with the last name of Baker and having 13 children. Instead, I married a wonderful man from Cuba and have two children (and really, God knew what he was doing—I didn’t do well with the whole pregnant and baby thing).
I thought I wanted to be a lawyer when I grew up. I’m a teacher instead. But I’ve been blessed to work at private Christian schools where I can form life-long friendships with my students. Now we work at a school and have about 52 children full time in addition to our biological children and all of our ‘kids’ from previous schools (our family reunion in heaven will be amazing).
This last weekend, Pedro and I planned a getaway to his favorite place on earth—Sedona, AZ. For this first time in months, just the two of us would spend time together mountain biking and exploring.
It rained. Not just a little, but a lot. We had fun anyway. We spent the first day running errands to romantic places such as Costco and the doctor’s office. Late in the afternoon, we decided to hike anyway—despite the rain (it had slacked off to a gentle drizzle).
I grabbed my waterproof camera and we set off to explore a new trail. Because of the rain, I left my ‘good camera’—the DSLR with the wide selection of lenses that weighs about 30 pounds back in the car. For the first time in a long time, I didn’t annoy Pedro with my constant stopping to take pictures and then getting too far behind him. Instead, I’d snap a shot or two or three (ok, maybe five or six), shove the camera in my pocket and jog to catch up with him. I learned something in the process—I can take good photos with a point-and-shoot camera, too.
Our second day we went on a long mountain bike ride and I continued to learn about the powers of my new bicycle (it has 29-inch wheels, which basically means that I can keep up with Pedro without having to work twice as hard). We stopped occasionally to soak in the view (and snap a few more photos), and for the first time in forever, I kept up with him the whole ride and we ended up back at the truck right as the rain stated to fall again.
After lunch, we decided to hike on another new trail (Sedona has scads of hiking and biking trails). When we arrived at the parking lot, Pedro decided on a nap to the rhythm of the rain. After forty-five minutes, he felt rested and the rain had let up, so we went for another hike and saw more beauty.
The unexpected produced memories, lessons and enough beauty to revive and rejuvenate us for the last three and a half weeks of the school year. We may plan, but only God makes us able to live it and enjoy what he knows we need.
Embrace the unexpected—you just might discover that those quirks and changes to your plans turn out to be grace notes from a God who wants to rest your weary soul.
Embracing the unexpected leads to blessings; lamenting it leads to dissatisfaction. Click To Tweet
