A Friend at an Unexpected Time

 Yesterday we had the pleasure of visiting somewhere none of us had ever been, The Biodiversity Museum in Panama. This was of interest to Cheryl and I because all we had ever seen of this museum was pillars in the ground. The whole year we lived in Panama we never saw any work done, never saw workers on the project and never expected the thing to be built at all. But now, sitting in front of me was a giant colorful museum full of information and people! Looking back, I think that is kind of how God works. God has a plan and a vision in place and then the hard work, the slow work takes place. The work that causes us to have to rethink how we go about what he is calling us to do. The foundation is visible, it seems not to change at all, but all along God is working some of His unique attributes to the situation. He's letting your purpose settle in, so that when the whole plan gets I acted on top of your foundation cracks don't appear, and the whole thing doesn't collapse on itself. He is preparing the road before you. Chances are, knowing Panama, there were many permits that may have slowed down the process of building the museum. I didn't see them, but for anything to move forward all that leg work must be taken care of, all of the hard work, the slow work. Sometimes we get impatient waiting for God's plan to happen in our lives. Sometimes we may perceive that as God not caring or God's plan being boring. Sometimes we may think we have it all figured out, and that God must not have any greater plans than what we currently see, but God knows better. He says this in Jeremiah (Every 5th kids confirmation verse) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God has great plans for us, even in those times when we can't see anything but some rebar sticking out of the mud. In those times though, stick your feet deeper in the mud, get set for what is going to happen, for God's plan is greater than we can imagine. My title talked about a friend at an unexpected time, well walking through this gigantic museum in the middle of Panama, after ten years of wondering what would be inside, my family saw a friend we hadn't see in many years. We had known Jazmin from Loma Coba and our learning time spent there, she is a bright vision of what God does with the clay and foundations. At that moment sitting in a museum under the shadow of a giant sloth (extinct 15-20 foot tall sloth) we caught up, talked about life a bit and were reminded that even in the randomness, God does his stuff. Sometimes in the randomness, God can even do His best stuff.