It's Almost As If There Was a Plan

Jake Frost had all his summer plans tumble apart, which lead to a surprising discovery. 

I had a plan. A plan for the whole summer. Well-crafted. Balanced. Designed to get us outside this summer, moving, doing things. It was a beautiful plan, with every week of the summer plotted on graph paper and even color-coded with a rainbow array of highlighters! 

The plan was building off last summer, which had been great. Last summer we started a new thing: getting up early and going out in the cool of the morning before work for different adventures. Sometimes tennis, sometimes painting in the park by the river, sometimes volleyball on the sand courts by the marina, sometimes bike riding on the trails winding all through town.  

I planned books to read and weekend jaunts, plus we had a big trip that we’ve all been anticipating for over a year — and there was going to be a visit from Grandma. 

Things Change 

And then everything changed. The trip was cancelled. The visit was cancelled. A big project came up at work that meant lots of extra hours for the first seven weeks of our summer. No more morning adventures; those hours went over to the work project. 

It also meant the kids had to devise their own entertainment during those times. 

Surprises 

But something surprising happened: Everything turned out better than my own plans. 

With time and freedom, the kids developed some new interests of their own. Two of them have gotten really into cooking. They look up recipes and then make them: homemade hot pretzels, rhubarb coffee cake, pigs-in-a-blanket, and pizza. They learned how to make beef gravy and put on dinner for the whole family. They make scrambled eggs and sausages for me for breakfast in the morning. One morning they picked fresh raspberries from our bushes here at home and made raspberry-lemon muffins, then hosted a breakfast picnic on a blanket outside for their siblings — everyone bringing their books. 

They started a reading challenge. They cleaned and reorganized the craft area in the basement and turned it into a library. They made a sign that hangs over the bookshelves that says: “Reading Challenge: read books, find cards, earn points!” You get a point for every book you read, and hidden inside some books are cards that give bonus points.  

Hence the reading picnic with fresh homemade raspberry muffins. 

We live on a couple of acres about 10 minutes outside town, and they’ve used our outdoor space to good effect. We might not have been able to get to the park along the river much, but they are outside painting in our yard on a blanket. And they’ve organized their own sports club, practicing volleyball and basketball and soccer together outside.  

It’s been great to see them setting their own goals, doing their own planning, and then then carrying the plans through into action. 

And as a parent, there’s nothing better than seeing your kids having fun doing things together. 

It’s almost as if ... 

So, when all your best-laid plans crumble around you, take heart. It may be because things are coming that will be better than anything you had devised for yourself.  

God asks us to live with faith, to trust in Him to give us our daily bread. When our plans get cancelled and everything we had expected changes around us, it’s good to try and remember that the things beyond our control are not beyond His control. He may just have a reason. 

The big project at work went from busy to super-busy, and the biggest crunch hit right when we would have been on our trip that got cancelled. 

And then ... we were unexpectedly introduced to the wonderful world of orthodontics. 

Suddenly all those extra hours at work seemed a real blessing. 

It’s almost as if there was a plan ...   

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Copyright 2024 Jake Frost
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