A Divine Appointment...

Why are we so interested in divine appointments? Of course, I can't speak for everyone, but the way I look at it, I can't think of anything more exciting than having something specially set up for you by God, Himself. It would imply that he cared for you enough to depend on you in some way. 

One thing I have learned about divine behavior over the years, is that God never has just one thing in mind. Whenever He intervenes, or sets something up, it always benefits more than just one person. It seems to me that whatever He touches has a ripple effect of good that spreads out in all directions, splashing wonderful things on anyone in the way. Many of whom had some sort of "help" in order to get into that position in the first place. And I am constantly in awe at how the Lord orchestrates these things. Here's an example of a recent one that "bumped" into us, just a couple of weeks ago...

Every year, for the last several years, we have traveled to a cooler location during the summer. Mostly because the Captain is an outdoor man, and once the temperature gets up over a hundred degrees and stays there for weeks on end, most otherwise enjoyable outside activities turn into torture. Since this has become such a habit for us, we decided how wonderful it would be to go back to something we have enjoyed so much on various occasions: living aboard a sailboat. Some of our most memorable times have been spent on boats. 

In fact, the more we thought about it, the more it seemed to actually fit into the "big picture" of our lives. We could see how it could even expand our ministry in many delightful ways. That would be the real draw of the thing, because if something doesn't fit in with God's "master plan," we wouldn't want to do it. Not because we are so selfless (I wish we were!), but because we have found His plans to be much more exciting than ours. And it is usually "His treat" when it comes to the expenses, too.

At any rate, we decided to "test the waters" a little bit, to see if this was really a "God idea," or not. So, we put our house up for rent. The phone started ringing within five minutes after the ad went out. Lots of people were interested. Everyone who came to see it within the next two days, wanted it. But there was one young family we had an instant connection with. It seemed they had very much wanted to live in the country (ours is a small farm), but everything they had been looking at was too expensive. So, they prayed about it. Because it really didn't look like something that would be possible for them to do. Shortly after they prayed that prayer, they saw our ad. 

I could end this story right here, and it would be enough for us to agree how good God is at working things out for everybody involved. Except I would be leaving a few special things out. Such as their desire to have some dairy goats because the goat's milk their two-year-old daughter needs is expensive. I happen to love dairy goats, and while I don't have any this year because of travel plans, the barn, pens, and pastures are already set up for them. However, we have two dogs who have been in our family for years, and we didn't look forward to losing them. So, we were more than delighted when the family agreed to take care of them for us during our travels. 

Something tells me, this is going to be a very exciting and unusual summer!

"Is it possible to miss a divine appointment simply because you fail to recognize the moment?" Hmmm…Meg wondered then if a person could actually go looking for divine appointments, and, if they got good at it, might even qualify for more…"

Taken from GOLD TRAP, the book that inspired our MYSTERY TOUR.