This weekend my daughter celebrated her 8th birthday. It always amazes me at this time of the year as I think about the few days leading to her birth.
This year as I normally do, I start thinking on July 23rd, the day I left work eight years ago, and ended up being sent to the hospital and ended up needing to be delivered almost two months early to save both me and my daughter’s lives.
But God…
Now, eight years later, we continue to celebrate. As you can imagine, it looked differently than anyone of us could have imagined. As you may know, my daughter is a planner, so, she started planning what she wanted to do, a year ago.
As we approached this year’s birthday, knowing that we would still be social distancing and her being hyper aware of the rules – She asked to have one friend – her sister friend that they’ve been together since they were a few months old. She planned and had me buy the decorations, the specific type of cake, the pizza, the juice. Almost every detail had been planned out, including the activities.
On the day of, we did our normal grocery shopping, and picked up any last minute items. Then my long time girlfriend offered to take her on her errands. She realized that she didn’t need to do errands, but opted to take her anyway. They ended up going and getting manicures and hot stone pedicures together (side note.. I’m just a little jealous), and eventually went and cooked together. My daughter loves to cook and the prepping that’s involved. They even made it to a favorite store for some more gooey slime.
By the time she got back to me, it was time for our 3 guests to arrive and to get her mini get together started. It was by far the simplest, but one of the most meaningful celebrations we had.
We then headed to the beach to close out the celebration, where she ran into a set of her closest friends, who we had spent the night before social distancing in their backyard, then came home to another set of friends who brought her another sweet treat gift and hand made cards.
This year looked nothing like we would have expected or planned for, but God had much better in store for us than we could have planned for or imagined.
Are you a perpetual planner like my daughter and me? God is reminding me in Matthew 6:33-34 to not worry. He’s constantly reminding me that today has enough of its own trouble to start worrying about tomorrow’s troubles. He’s also reminding me in Jeremiah 29:11 that He knows the plans He has for me and they are plans to prosper me and not to harm me.
He proved just that yesterday. His plans are way better than any I can imagine.
Will you join me in trusting Him?
Dear Heavenly Father, I’m so grateful that you do all things well. I’m so grateful that you care about the smallest details and nothing is too small to miss your care. Help us to trust you more as you continue to show us that you care for the flowers, and how much more valuable we are than them.
