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When God Sends You in an
Unexpected Direction
What happens in life isn’t always tidy or predictable.
Here are some ideas for finding peace in the midst of confusion.
by Julia Attaway
I walked along the sidewalk that borders the west side
of Central Park this morning marveling at its geometry: hexagonal paving stones
underneath my feet were bordered by parquet-like brickwork, with a tidy stone
wall running alongside.
Just past the wall lay the park itself, where delicate
branches of leafless trees laced the blue sky, and an erratic chatter of house
sparrows emerged from sprawling yews.
The contrast between the straight-lined, orderly,
man-made sidewalk and the intricate, swirling exuberance of nature just beyond
its border set me to thinking about the differences between God’s creation and
man’s.
The world holds innumerable examples of circles made
by God: the moon, belly buttons, grapes, drops of water and the center of
flowers.
Triangles are readily evident, too. There are kitty
cat noses and ears, conifers, mountain peaks, agave leaves and river deltas.
But what about that most-common shape in the man-made
world, the rectangle?
I searched my brain for natural counterparts, and
though I thought and thought I came up with only two: teeth and salt crystals.
That surprised me. Do we prefer rectangles simply
because it’s easier to plan and build with blocks and straight lines?
Or does it have something to do with how humans tend
to assume life is supposed to be linear? I don’t know.
There is a saying that God writes straight with
crooked lines.
As I look at the beauty of a tree in winter, with its
boughs and branches and twigs reaching skyward in a seemingly jumbled but
obviously planned pattern, I can grasp something of what that means.
God’s plan isn’t always tidy and predictable in the
way that I want it to be.
There are twists and turns in my life that I can’t
foresee or predict.
That doesn’t mean branching off in unexpected
directions is bad or wrong.
All it means is that in each new place I find myself,
I need to continue growing, reaching upward, living for and with the Lord.
Julia Attaway
Seeds of Devotion
Julia Attaway is a freelance writer,
homeschooler and mother of five. She is the editor of Daily Guideposts: Your First Year of Motherhood, a
book of devotions for first-time moms. She lives in New York.
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