The Elusive Plans of God

Up before the sun yesterday, determined to find the manatee as they were eating breakfast. I swallowed a cup of coffee and was on the intracoastal waterway as the sun rose.

I walked my kayak to the waterway, hopeful that the elusive manatee would be available to chat.

It was another gorgeous morning, but manatee and dolphin hid out. However, I did get to see the elusive Florida Beach deer, with his full rack of antlers. When I came close, he shook his antlers at me, then skedaddled. Watch the video of that encounter below. (PS- I don't know if there is really a Florida Beach Deer...it is my moniker and I hope it sticks.)

Next on our busy vacation agenda -- On to Silver Glen Springs, recommended by a passerby when I was kayaking. Manatee everywhere, he promised! An hour drive away, but we were eager to kayak with manatee, so hopped in the car. Guess what we found there? No manatee. They had already packed their blubber and headed south. Terribly disappointed, we figured as long as we were there, we would kayak.

It was incredible. The water was so clear we could see twenty feet down as though looking through glass! I am waist deep in water looking at my toes in the photo above! We watched fish swimming under our boats. The only downside was there were alligators. I saw one gliding by in the distance. There was also a massive thunderstorm brewing on the horizon. I was not thrilled by the inevitable storm, but it did make for awesome photo opportunities.

We avoided deadly attack by alligators, and arrived back safe and sound with enough time for me to swim in the frigid clear spring water. The thunderstorm didn't unleash its fury till we were back in the car.

So what was God's message for me this day? I kayaked looking for dolphin and found a deer. I drove an hour expecting manatees, and instead found a gorgeous lake of crystal clear waters unlike anything I had ever seen. I would not have driven so far had I known there were no manatees there...but in the end, I was so glad we did!

Sometimes, God's plans are like that. His plan takes us on paths we would be unlikely to choose, yet they are often so much better than we could imagine. Sometimes what He has in store for us is not what we had hoped for, but His elusive plans are always best. Somehow, He oversees the steps that we choose in an inexplicable dance of our free will and His sovereignty. The Bible is replete with stories of God's people suffering terrible struggles, only to discern in the end God was holding their hand and walking them to a glorious conclusion they could never have imagined.

Charles Spurgeon spoke often of God's plan, and in this excerpt, contrasted our plans with the sovereign will of God:
Man chooses his own seat, selects his own position, guided by his will he chooses sin, or guided by divine grace he chooses the right, and yet in his choice sits as sovereign, on the throne: not disturbing, but still over-ruling, and proving Himself to be able to deal as with free creatures as with creatures without freedom, as wall able to effect His purpose when he has endowed men with thought, and reason, and judgment, as when He had only to deal with the solid rocks and with the imbedded sea. O Christians! you shall never be able to fathom this, but you may wonder at it. I know there is an easy way of getting out of this great deep, either by denying predestination altogether or by denying free-agency altogether, but if you can hold the two, if you can say, "Yes, my consciousness teaches me that man does as he wills, but my faith teaches me that God does as he wills, and these two are not contrary the one to the other; and yet I cannot tell how it is, I cannot tell how God effects his end, I can only wonder and admire, and say, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out."

Full moon and the end of another perfect day. A beautiful setting to ponder the elusive plans of God.

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Jeremiah 29:11-14 

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Proverbs 16:9 

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Proverbs 19:21

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.