Our 6:00 am Birthday Party

Good morning…

On the spur of this moment, I am planning a 6:00 am surprise birthday party. My son turns 22 today. My daughter turns 20 tomorrow. Snow is predicted to shut down Atlanta this afternoon, wreaking havoc on our Plan A birthday plans. So, unbeknownst to my sleeping family, eggs and pancakes, and birthday cake and presents will greet them when they wake.

My excitedly nervous daughter is transferring to a new college. We were supposed to celebrate my son today, celebrate my daughter tomorrow, and leisurely drive her to her fresh start after church on Sunday morning. The predicted snow says, “No!”

In the face of our Plan A, what do we do when life says, “No?”

We can moan and complain and rage against reality. We can cry and cling and painfully pine for the way it was supposed to be. Or we can ask ourselves a simple question, “What is God’s higher pathway through this anxious disappointment?”

I asked God that question when I woke in prayer at 3:30 am. During my journaling hour I sensed God whisper, “Make eggs. Flip pancakes. Serve birthday cake at breakfast.” I love being in relationship with the One whose ways are higher than mine.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:8-12, NIV).