As I was driving to Summit Orthopedics Thursday morning for a shadow, I missed one of the exits I was supposed to take because there was construction and I couldn't see that I had to exit way earlier than normal. My GPS rerouted me, which added about ten minutes to my ETA. As I finally got back to the road I was originally supposed to be on, I missed yet another exit. This time I just wasn't paying very good attention to what my GPS was telling me to do. I had to get off on another exit, turn around, and back track until I got back on the right road. I still made it to my destination on time with two minutes to spare.
As I approached my destination, I couldn't help but look back and think, "Wow, this is exactly how God has been working in my life." When we have our GPS on, or rather when we fix our eyes on God, we will always reach our final destination. Our route may not be exactly as we predicted, but we will get there. When we miss our exits, God shows us His grace by giving us an alternate way to arrive at our destination in perfect timing. It may not be perfect timing to us (I wanted to be 15 minutes early), but it is His perfect timing. The surgeon was 45 minutes late anyways; God knew I wouldn't be missing much.
I missed my second exit because I took my eyes off of the GPS and didn't listen to it. Even though I missed the exit, my GPS brought me back to where I needed to be. This time it didn't just give me an alternate route; it made me go back to the beginning where I missed the exit. Sometimes God doesn't give us the answer we want to our prayers because He wants us to go back and do it the right way before He blesses us with something else. He wants us to deal with our problems head on.
So if I had my eyes fixed on my GPS for the first exit, why did I miss that one too?? And then it hit me. God didn't want me to take that route. He wanted me to go another way. The alternate route was longer and I ran into much more traffic. But I was exactly where God wanted me to be at that very moment. There was something on that alternate route that God wanted for me. If I didn't refocus my eyes on God, if my GPS didn't reroute me, I would have never found my way and reached my final destination.
No matter what you're going through, as long as you fix your eyes on God, you are on the exact route He wants you to be on and you will reach your final destination.
May we rest in God's peace knowing we are exactly where we are supposed to be in God's good and perfect plan for us.