Preparations?

This past few days have consisted of lots of outside time and Gracie time. And believe it or not, me and my Mother are totally alright with that. We've laughed at all the silly antics of our favorite little blue-blondie, played hard outside and come up with all sorts of new nicknames for her. Like:

Doodlepop

Lambchop

& Shortstop

(We like names that rhyme. It makes it easier to convert them into random outburts of song.)

I keep looking through these pictures of my niece and thinking that, ready or not, she'll be a big sister soon. Her life is about to change forever and whether she's prepared or not, she's going to have to adapt and accept what coming her way. 

We've been in preparation mode for the arrival of Nephew and Bethie's recovery at home. Making bread, keeping the laundry going, making freezer meals, and folding teeny-tiny 'lil mancub clothes. It's been busy and fulfilling, this trying to get ready in time. 

But honestly, how do you get ready for this thing we call life? How can you prepare yourself when, at times, all your silver-woven plans get torn to pieces and are left flapping there in the evening sunbeams? 

Maybe it's less about preparing and planning from our limited human perspective and more about being ready for whatever God gives us. He knows what will happen, He has ordained it all. Thus, He has the grace we need to handle all of the unexpected, the unplanned, and unpleasant things we will experience as we live life here on this planet. We can hold onto that when well-laid plans slip through our feeble hands and the world goes spinning all crazy faster then we ever thought it would. We can rest, right there, with Him. 

In Him.

By the time you read this, I'll most likely be in a St. Louis hospital waiting to hold my nephew. The little miracle baby. He's already experienced some of that crazy-we-did-not-expect-for-this-to-happen stuff, and he hasn't even been born yet.

 I just want to tell him that as soon as he takes his first breath, he's going to be on one insane, beautiful, heart-swelling, stretching and growing, breath-catching ride. I would tell him, yes be prepared. But mostly? Be ready and willing to accept the plans God has for you. His ways are not ours and they are hard and crazy-sounding but they are so so so SO much better.

So hold on Little Guy, hold on to Jesus. 

Because here comes your life, ready or not.