A Perfect Fit

I can't divulge what I was researching in Richmond, as I don't want to put out any spoilers yet on my new book, but it involved a hard hat. The hat was borrowed, as I have not yet had occasion to use one on a regular basis. I asked if my bicycle helmet, or even ski helmet would be adequate but was told "no". So, I put on the hard hat. It was about ten sizes too big, or as some might point out, my head was about ten sizes too small. I have always had this problem with hats. My head was the smallest head in my entire graduating class of over 400 students in high-school. I know this because they actually told me that as they tried to get the mortarboard to balance on my pea skull. (Just as an aside, my husband had the LARGEST head in his graduating class of over 400. Fortunately, that means my children did not emerge with freakishly tiny skulls, but since I am all-over a small framed woman, it also means that childbirthing was NO PICNIC.)

So I put on the large hard hat which slid around on top of my head like a dripping egg yolk. Much of the day was spent looking up, and every time I looked up, the hat slid back and clanged against the base of my neck, ripping a few choice hairs out of my scalp in the process. Then when I would look down to take notes, it would smack against the bridge of my nose, sending sparks to the many nerves that transmit pain impulses.

What I won't do for a good story....Even with the anguish of the hard hat, it was a delightful day, and well worth it. So many things in life don't quite fit, and one must make do with what one is given. I don't mean physically, though as a child of an older sister, who was often clothed in hand me downs, that happened too. However, I mean circumstantially. We think we are destined for great things, and we strive for those, but then, somehow the great things don't seem to pan out, and we find ourselves in jobs we didn't quite want, with people we don't quite relate too, with accolades we never quite obtained, living lives that don't quite fit with the vision we once had. Some people grow bitter and some give up. Why bother if we can never find what really does fit perfectly, obtain exactly what we had hoped for?

Many of the Israelites wandering behind Moses on their trek to the Promised Land might have felt this. They were happy to leave the slavery of Egypt...at first...but then found out that the life of following God's plan was not always easy. It was not what they expected or hoped for. The continually groaned, and moaned, and rebelled. God did have a plan, and the end result would be worth the disappointments of the journey, but they often could not see beyond how badly it fit their vision of what should be.

So what is one to do? How does one embrace a life that seems tailored for someone else, for bigger heads? The Bible tells us over and over again. Hope in The Lord. Put your Hope in something that big and little heads can hold equally strongly. Look beyond the circumstances that threaten to destroy you and trust that His plan, in the end, will be exactly altered to match who you are in His kingdom. Notice the lessons along the way; the people that have been influenced or are influencing you that you would never have met had you traveled the path you once thought was the perfect route for your life. Hope in the love of God, in the perfect fit of His will, and the perfect and everlasting redemption that is ours in Christ Jesus. In the end, the hat will fit exactly as it was always meant to.

Job 30:26 (NIV)
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.

Psalm 130:7 (NIV)
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.

Psalm 119:81 (NIV)
My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 130:5 (NIV)
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.

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