I've always heard this expression, but never known what it means or where it came from. After extensive (google) research, I've still come up short. I guess I'll have to pick a new exclamation for moments of disbelief.
Still, tonight, the phrase seemed appropriate (not that I'm any closer to knowing where or why it should be used). I got a call shortly after I put this darlingness of a child down to sleep for the night. Turns out that while at dinner, the father of this baby boy passed out and was with baby mama in the E.R. I've always dreamed of when this call might come. Like when the parents of kids I babysat regularly through high school were running way past the time they estimated for me, I would, just for a moment, think "what if they had a wreck or are on the way to the hospital. What would I do if that really did happen. yadda yadda." I never imagined I would get the "we're in the ER" call on the first night I babysit for a new family.
Long story short, the dad is fine, just got a little too hot and bothered there in the Chili's (baby back ribs... barbeque sauce). I just felt bad because I didn't want them to have to pay me for time spent at a hospital. Which ended up being four hours. That's not me complaining, that's me sympathizing.
It was such a blessing to be able to rock this little boy back to sleep come 9:30 while praying for his parents and asking God to guard and protect such a precious family. I had the t.v. but after a while that got boring. I remembered that I have mom's Bible in my purse, so I got that out and started reading through Psalm 119. That is one long chapter! I wrote a few notes to friends. I texted people and tried to call others back. There in this little house I was forced to be productive and was led straight to the Word.
When the parents got back we stood and talked and then sat and talked. About keeping kids while she tackles a business venture. About seizures and throw up. About debt snowballs. The usual. Jackie mentioned quitting her job a few months back to be with her 2 boys and how huge a leap of faith that was. She continued by saying how amazing it is to literally look a check book and not know where money is going to come from to take care of everything, to know that numbers aren't going to add up, and then move on to the next month to find that it's all taken care of. Somehow, in what should have been the most trying 8 months of a marriage, this is the most financially and spiritually sound the family has ever been. And she was quick to point out that it is a God thing, even saying how neat it is to be at a time where everything is dependent on Him pulling through and then realizing that He has (and He will), month after month.
That optimism (or is it faith?) spread even to her view of tonight's events. "If we really needed a quiet dinner to ourselves, no hassle, we would have gotten it. But it turned out differently and that's okay, too. We got what we apparently needed... and at least we still didn't have any kids!"
Oh, and the man's alive.
That is why that phrase is appropriate tonight, yes? Eh, maybe I still haven't gotten the execution of that one down.
All of this is to say that things could have turned out way differently tonight and I am so thankful to God that He worked the events in a way only He could.
"Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. " Psalm 119: 33-34
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