Friday, September 02, 2011

Lessons From the Edge

God sets our appointments.

Wednesday when I was leaving work I found out about a scheduling problem for Thursday morning. Two of our residents had appointments in opposite directions - at nearly the same time. Since it was not physically possible for our driver to accommodate them, my boss was going to take one of them. But she was the only one scheduled to be in the office that morning. (My day off, co-worker on vacation...)
One of the appointments was near my house, so I volunteered to take J. I planned to get up and work out, go pick him up, and come home to shower while J was seeing his dentist. It just seemed like a reasonable option.

Thursday, as J and I were driving to the dentist office, we had a delightful conversation. J used to be a minister and was telling me stories of God's goodness. Including the struggle he and his wife faced trying to have children. She was not conceiving, and even adoption wasn't working out. They finally accepted that God must have different plans for them besides parenthood. And shortly after their surrender, she became pregnant. Twice!
When we arrived at the dentist office, I signed J in and started to ask how long his appointment would last. Wanted to find out how much time I had to go home and shower. That's when we found out - his appointment was September 15, not September 1! Oops.
So we drove back to Edgewood.
And continued our delightful conversation about God and His goodness. It was a great morning!

After I dropped J off and was on my way home, I realized his appointment Thursday was with me, not the dentist. He'll get his crown and filling on the 15th. But the plan for the 1st was mutual encouragement and delighting in God's glory. God knew it would be that way. He wasn't surprised by the 'mix up'.
Because, God sets our appointments.

Karen

6 comments:

Leah Adams said...

Love God's plans. What a treasure that time with J. was. I bet he was blessed just as much as you were.

TheUnSoccerMom said...

Love it when that happens! :o)

happyhome said...

I love how you could see God's hand in the "mix-up". Reading one thousand gifts by Ann Voskamp and learning to live a life of thanksgiving...not always easy. Have you read yet?

Beth E. said...

It's so neat when God does things to encourage us...what a blessing!

Kathys Blog said...

Awesome story, Karen! What a HUGE blessing you are to the residents at Edgewood and to people in general, including me! I'm grateful for your prayers. God is clearly at work in your life.

Karen Hossink said...

Leah - I hope he was!

Jodi - I imagine it happens more than I realize. Here's to having eyes that see!

Angela - I haven't read that book yet. But living a life of thanksgiving is a wonderful thing!

Beth - Yes. And He always knows when we need it.

Kathy - Thank you. :o)