God’s time

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; Psalm 24

Blogger Andy Merrick said countering the well known quote from avowed atheist and comedian Woody Allen, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans,” says, it just isn’t biblical. The Bible actually says, Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3 There is a caveat to this a couple verses earlier…To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue. Proverbs 16:1 In other words he says, “Go ahead and plan things, but the Lord will be the One who ultimately decides what happens.”

With our delay crossing the border behind us we drove two hours into Canada. Once on the river, we began paddling up the Namakan River and after about an hour we were nearing Hay Rapids. It was then that we saw a capsized canoe with two persons clinging to it as it was being swept along in the swift river current. Several of our men swam out and pulled the battered canoe and its exhausted crew to shore. They were an elderly man and his grandson, in an unresponsive state of hypothermia. When he’d warmed enough to gain his composure, the man informed us that he was in the first of two canoes which were swamped at the beginning of Hay Rapids (a ¼ mile long challenging set of rapids which they’d tried to navigate in lieu of portaging as instructed by their outfitters.) Our team quickly went upstream and located the second canoe and its occupants, two women and a teenaged son, who’d made it to shore with their severely battered canoe. After salvaging some floating contents, patching up their wounds and straightening their canoes, we prayed with the family for their safety and sent them on their way to meet with their outfitters a few miles downstream.

There was no doubt in our minds that this family had pushed the envelope of safety which could have just as easily ended in tragedy. But we were even more strongly convinced that God had placed us when and where we needed to be; in His time. I don’t think any of us looked at our watches quite the same after that experience.

Bless you brothers, live this day in peace, in His Word.