Surprise
Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Palm 37:4
We recently took an impromptu vacation. The whole family was in need of rest. We have been living together in close quarters for 10 months. Love and patience has been stretched to the fullest. The stress of selling our homes, moving more than once and cramped spaces was taking its toll on us all. One thing Greg said to me before we married was that he always wanted to make sure we took a vacation. He said we may not have a lot of money but we needed to leave a legacy of memories for our son not just stuff. True to his word, we have taken a vacation every year.
This year, one had not been planned. Brandon and Kendra were supposed to move into their new house, Kendra had classes and Brandon had coaching duties. We knew we had a very small window and didn’t know what stage of the building process we would be involved in when the “vacation window” arrived. So, nothing was planned. As the “vacation window” approached we all began to talk about a vacation. We thought Brandon and Kendra would be moving but things had been delayed again. So, Greg and I started looking for something we could go do. Greg found a last minute deal on a 3 day cruise to the Bahamas. It sounded wonderful but I knew that 3 days was not enough time to unwind and enjoy getting away. I wanted everyone to be relaxed some before we got on the ship. The little kids wanted to play in the “big sand” or beach. We started looking for motels on the beach close to where the cruise ship would be docked. They were expensive! We have a time share but we had already used our week last summer. Greg suggested I look on our site anyway. There it was. They had given us an extra week all we had to do was pay the exchange fee which was less than one night on the beach. Thank you Lord!
The exchange week was in Orlando and the kids (Kenlee and Corbin) wanted to go to the beach. Oh we were going to a beautiful beach. A private island owned by the cruise company! We decided to surprise the kids about the cruise. Kenlee and Corbin were excited about vacation but Orland? No beaches there. Kenlee finally figured out we were in the same town as Sea World and Disney World. She couldn’t understand why we couldn’t go to some of her favorite places. We just kept telling her we had a surprise at the end of the week.
We had a great time in Orlando. We basically rested and played in the pool for several days. The kids had a great time but still wondered why they couldn’t go to the beach or Sea World or Disney World. They didn’t realize the best was yet to come! The excitement when took off the blindfold with the cruise ship right in front of them was definitely worth the wait!
This made me think about Jesus delaying to go see Lazarus who was so sick he died. Jesus had delayed going to the family he loved in order to give them and his disciples a deeper faith. He was concerned with their suffering but he also knew God’s timing and God’s will was best. We can become perplexed or even discouraged when we are in the middle of trials but God will always answer according to His greater wisdom and love. Be patient. Pray. Eagerly await what God has for you!
Indeed, the Lord will give what is good, and or land will yield its produce. Psalm 85:12