Precise Timing
posted by on 05/16/10
Three recent events reminding us of God’s perfect timing …
May 10—The Bates family exemplified orderliness and obedience when their dad said that it was time to go. Less than an hour later, around 1:15, James and Daniel also left for their trip back to Illinois. They however soon returned. A new house-building project was blocking our road and a bypass route had to be found. Then we began to wonder: “How did the Bates make it through?” The only thing we could figure was that 
the men working on the house had been on a lunch break between 12:00 and 1:00, leaving the road passable at that time. If the Bateses hadn’t left in the time God gave them, getting new directions would have been, for them, time-consuming, not to mention presenting the possibility of getting lost in the-middle-of-nowhere West Virginia. Honoring and obeying authority is God’s way of helping us “bypass” a host of unforeseen roadblocks.
May 11—Voting Day. Almost everyone remaining at home came down with flu-like symptoms to one degree or another. It was terrible! But on the previous Sunday evening, Dad had given a message from James 1 about sharing Christ’s joy as we weather the trials. Now was our chance to “rejoice … knowing this, that the trying of [our] faith worketh patience … that [we] may be [mature and complete, lacking] nothing”! David’s broken arm also needed to be set that day. There is no doubt that the enemy was doing whatever he could to keep us from casting our 
vote. With that perspective and much grace from God, all of us were able to vote and after returning from town my queasiness never seriously bothered me again. We were also tremendously grateful that James and Daniel had left soon enough not to be effected.
May 14—it was supposed to rain in the afternoon so we went to mow the lower section of our property in the morning. After I took care of the area around the pond and trimmed the rest, Jonathan took over, finishing before lunch. Still the sun was shining. As a matter of fact it didn’t even sprinkle until 6:40. I began to think I could have done “more important 
things” and maybe even put off the mowing altogether until Saturday. When morning dawned, my doubtful thoughts quickly vanished. From our dining room window we saw that in the night a tree had blown down right across the lawn. I looked at Jonathan. The surprise on his face mirrored my own. Both of us were glad we didn’t put off the job that Dad said was important.
Don’t worry too much about finding the perfect time to do a job. Stay in touch with authority. Do the most important things first.
3 Comments » | posted in The Bright Side
After supper and Rook our Grandparents had to leave. Just after saying good-bye and seeing them disappear out of our driveway we heard somebody honking; James and Daniel had arrived! After greeting them and showing them where they would stay we played a few games of chess before going to sleep for the night. 
