As I sat here contemplating about the subject, “When Life Doesn’t Turn Out As Expected,” my ears perked up to an unexpected noise. I rushed to the window to see the UPS truck.
While I was surprised to see him, he was merely on time. That juxtaposition is a metaphor of God’s timing and will.
It may be of great or little monetary value and there is some mystery to the package now lying on my front porch. But it has my name on it and it was delivered on a schedule not my own.
Life would have been so much easier when I was younger if I simply put myself in a position of waiting for the surprises rather than “ordering” them and waiting anxiously for them to ship and arrive. It was during those years that I was eager to find my purpose in life and was ambitious to do so even if I had to push my way to the front.
Back in those days, I was studying The Bible under my spiritual father when he abruptly stopped and asked, “Does this scripture have any particular meaning for you?”I paused and reread, “I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out ahead of you, until you become fruitful and possess the land.” (Exodus 23:29,30 BSB)My wise mentor wasn’t being mean and he wasn’t saying that God didn’t want me to take the land. Like the Israelites under Moses, there would be years of trials, false starts and the most circuitous of routes before The Lord brought me into a promised land.I know Moses spotted some wild animals. But did he ever see a UPS truck?
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: God’s routes aren’t always measured by roadways so much as timing.
The LORD your God will drive those nations out ahead of you little by little. You will not clear them away all at once, otherwise the wild animals would multiply too quickly for you…But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Deuteronomy 7:22 NLT, Matthew 24:36 NIV