My Plan was the Walk, God's Plan was the Watermelon

I'm currently enrolled in my first college photography class (with 4 other mom friends of mine and a bunch of college kids!) and our assignment for this week was to take a "Series" of pictures. I pondered all the different ways I could go about accomplishing this broad assignment before settling on a church event that was to happen over the weekend. The church our family attends just had their last service at their rented, strip mall facility and was scheduled to walk, as a congregation, the four miles from the old facility to the new.

It was a bright, sunny Sunday and I was sure that I could get some neat shots. I was right. I captured the picture of the painting in the window of the old facility that reads "WE'RE MOVING!" and shows a truck towing a church. I got pictures of the stream of young and old leaving the parking lot and heading down the sidewalk in brightly colored patches of joy. I got shots of a little boy on his dad's shoulders, a shot of a pony-tailed girl with her arm wrapped around the neck of her Labra-doodle, a shot of friends arm in arm on their way to their new church home. I really did, as I had planned, get some good options for my assignment.

Hours and hundreds of pictures later, as we stood in front of the new church having finished our walk, toured the new facility, and reveled in all the Lord was accomplishing I decided it was time to put my camera away. As I turned to get my camera bag a snip of red hair caught my attention...

Today I marvel once again at the fact that God's plans are always so much better than my own plans. My plan had been to get a series of pictures of a momentous day in the life of our church, a series of pictures of our own "Grand Exodus" and subsequent entry to "the Promised Land" and indeed, for the most part my plan worked out (this time) but God's plan was for me to capture an even better series of pictures which included one of His littlest children "bearing fruit."

When God captivated me with "Claire" He also reminded me how brightly He can radiate in the youngest of children and how wonder often comes in small packages and how the best "fruits of our labor" come not only in buildings and accomplishments but in lives that are nurtured.

Oh mommies, I pray for you and I that the Lord would open our spirit eyes that we would not miss "the watermelons of life." That God would alert us to those moments when His irresistible beauty shows up in unexpected places. That God would help us remember that He greatly values our role as mothers and that His light shines most brightly in the lives of the little ones...and that we will always be His little ones!

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." Psalm 40:5

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Blessings,
Tracy Klehn