Weather Balloons

     This school year we studied a science unit on weather. I carefully prepared a slide show for the day, covering our lesson on forecasting. I included pictures to aide in teaching about weather stations, weather balloons, and weather satellites. The morning I was to teach to the lesson, as I walked to school, a strange orange object on the playground caught my eye. Upon closer investigation, I discovered it was a NOAA weather balloon that had landed, with perfect timing during the night, upon our proverbial doorstep! 
    In case you are unfamiliar with weather balloons, they are devices meteorologists send into the atmosphere, usually on a daily basis. They consist of a balloon filled with helium and a box that records data such as humidity, wind speed, and pressure. As the balloon rises higher in the atmosphere, it expands until it finally pops. As the weight of the box pulls downward, a small parachute deploys to slow and soften the landing. The data box can then be retrieved and connected to a computer. In the event that the contraption, as in our case at school, lands on private property, a tube with a prepaid envelope addressed to the weather service is attached with the request that the finder returns it to the weather station via post. 
    What were the chances that a weather balloon would land on our school yard the very day we were learning about them in Science? I'm sure they weren't very high. Yet there the balloon was on the very day we were studying forecasting! I couldn't have asked for better timing.
    Timing. What about God's timing? Unlike us humans, His timing is always perfect. We get frantic for solutions, drive ourselves into despair trying to figure out a way to make something work out, and languish in depression when we see no way out, all the while forgetting that in God's time, things will come together.
    We often begrudge having to relinquish control into God's hands. We forget all the times He's proven Himself throughout history. Remember Esther? God chose the perfect time for her to become queen. With impeccable foresight He made a way for the Israelites through the Red Sea. When the Philistines seemed a nearly impossible foe, God sent David, a boy He had been preparing, to visit his brothers just at the right moment to witness Goliath's mocking words. 
    It is so hard to sit back and trust. Waiting on God's timing to bring closure to situations we face or to open new doors is difficult. Our faith is challenged. Our understanding that He has our good in mind is sometimes difficult to cling to. There are days we feel God is putting us into situations we are not yet ready for, leading us into something that seems too big for us.  
    But as God told Sarah in Genesis 18:14: Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee... David writes in Psalms 31: My times are in thy hand... We are reminded in Luke 18 that things which are impossible with men are possible with God. And of course, we remember that Ecclesiastes 3:11 states positively that He hath made everything beautiful in His time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. We are clearly told that we can't understand or predict God's plans and timing for us. Why do we waste so much time and energy trying and worrying? 
    I am challenging myself to lean more on God's timing, to trust that in His goodness He will make a way for me when it looks like it is too late or too dark or too difficult. I want to learn to live my life joyfully in the knowledge that His plan and His timing will not be hindered by anything this world may throw at me. I want to relax into His love, confident that He will guide me every step of the way.