God is good!

The other day Jacob and I were discussing how good God is and how his timing is always perfect whether we see it at the time or not. We have always known that we wanted kids, but never knew when the time would be right in God’s will for us. All we knew was that it was not time yet. I wondered if we would ever know for sure. Finally we couldn’t find a valid reason to wait any longer, yet we didn’t feel an overwhelming “ok” from God, but this was more than we had had up until this point.

We found out Josiah was on his way this summer, and shortly after, my mom unexpectedly moved in with us for other reasons. In December, I was laid off from my job. This posed financial issues along with the fact that I had wanted to be busy until Josiah arrived. The last thing I wanted was to sit around and wait for this new little life to join us and there was no way I’d be hired while I was in my third trimester. A few other minor unfortunate events happened and nothing seemed to be going right and I wondered about God’s timing and our decision to start a family. What was he thinking? What were we thinking? Why were these things happening at the same time? I worried that we had jumped the gun on God’s plan for us. Maybe it wasn’t the time for kids – such a big decision to be wrong on. Maybe I would not have lost my job if I wasn’t pregnant. We had never been absolutely sure, we had just moved on with life in faith. Along with the loss of my job came a move back to Gainesville from Ocala and a month later my mom moved (for the 3rd time in 7 months) to her new home just down the road from us.

That brings us to where we are now. Things have settled down (for just a short time since Josiah is due in 4 weeks) and Jacob and I were reflecting on how it all worked out perfectly. My mom moving in was a blessing in disguise because after work every night during the first trimester, I was too tired to get myself up off the couch. She cooked meals, cleaned and generally made things easier. If Josiah had made his way to us any sooner, we would not have been settled in our home and mom in hers. Moving would have been even more difficult and things would be chaotic. If he had come any later, he may not have come at all because we would have begun to see what the coming months would bring us and decided to wait. With my job loss, I was able to take the time to move and settle things (and re-settle after mom moved out). It has given me time to prepare for and anticipate Josiah. While I have to admit that I have been a bit on the bored side, I have had the opportunity to get organized, catch up on things, and do several upkeep type things I would not have normally been able to do. With it being Jacob’s slow season (and poor economy), we have also had lots of time together. I wouldn’t trade it all for anything.

God is good. He knows exactly how to turn the bad things that life throws at us to work for his glory and our good. He knew what he was doing when he led us to make the decisions we made although we had no idea what we were doing. We didn’t feel “guided”, but we always try to have faith in God and follow him and he always blesses those efforts. He saw the big picture while we were experiencing each little event. We probably still don’t even see the whole big picture yet.

We still have several problems that need to be worked out, but God always has been faithful to us and I have no reason to think that he won’t continue to be. The other day I read Isaiah 46:3-4 (God speaking to the Israelites) and it talks about how God upheld them since they were conceived and will continue to even in their old age when they have gray hair. It ends by saying “I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” What a promise!