The Best Is Yet To Come

As long as we are on this journey of life, we will all come to crossroads. That was the case for my grandson, Kyle, this past Friday. He graduated from 8^th grade and is now on the path to high school. He says it is no big deal but I am the one who drove to O’Hare and flew to North Carolina and then boarded a really small commuter plane to Havelock so I would be there when he was born and to his mother’s dismay he waited until I got there. I am actually the one who took him kicking and screaming to preschool every day. I was there the day he got on the big yellow school bus for the first time and disappeared around the corner. I have watched as his mom has taken his picture by the same tree every year on his first day of school. I remember when our dog died and we had in-depth discussions on why God allowed Bridget to get sick and die and would she be in heaven. I remember every birthday and we have had some really classic ones. One year we gave him a dozen eggs and an omelet maker. We had blown out part of the eggs and rolled up money to put inside and until he broke a money egg he really thought he was just getting an omelet maker. So the next year he asked for cold hard cash and we froze his money in a block of ice. I remember his first time on the soccer field. He did not want to stay and made it known in very loud terms and then this year when they won the tournament. Our summer water wars were the best and proved that the victory goes not to the swift but to the sneaky. I gave him his first business loan to buy a lawn mower so he could earn money over the summer. He paid me back in full. I remember watching him hang from a parasail in the Bahamas. I remember when he started junior high school – that was traumatic for me and now we are just a few short months away from high school. So maybe to him this is no big deal but to me it is huge. These have been 14 wonderful years watching him grow from a little boy into 5’11” of a very incredible young man and I am one very proud grandma.

People have been encountering crossroads since the beginning of time and I absolutely love God’s view of the future. Isaiah 43: 18 – 19 The Message:

18"Forget about what’s happened;

don’t keep going over old history.

19Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?

God is looking back over the path that He has traveled with the people He loves. He begins to recount each step of their journey together. He asks them to remember the day he brought Moses to deliver them, remember all ten plagues, and remember that the first born of every family not in a home where the doorframe was covered with blood died. He recounts for them that Pharaoh said to leave and to take whatever they needed and that Moses led two to three million people out of Egypt. He reminds them of the day when they came to the Red Sea and there was no way across and it looked like they were doomed. The sea parted for them and then drowned the Egyptians. Yes, our Lord looks back on the miracle-laden path He has walked with Israel and then He tells them to forget the past because what was coming would be even greater.

Israel, Kyle, you, and me are on a journey and that journey if filled with memories of great sorrow and great joy. Sometimes our path brings us to a t-intersection and we are forced to change course and go to the left or right. It may be the loss of a job, a divorce, a death, moving to a new community or a medical diagnosis that forces us to go a different direction. Then there are times when we find ourselves at a crossroad of choices. We can stay the course or choose to go another way. Whatever causes us to stand at the crossroads doesn’t matter as much as what we do at the crossroads. We should remember the path we have just traveled and how the Lord was with us step by step. We should remember the times the Lord has cried with us and every time we have danced with joy together. Crossroads allow us to reflect and unpack baggage we have collected on that portion of our journey. We may have collected some anger, bitterness, and hurt and this is where God says to leave it behind. We may have encountered blessings that we don’t want to give up like a high paying job, a new home, or a place that is comfortable. After we take time to reflect and rid ourselves of any excess baggage, we remember God’s words to Israel

18"Forget about what’s happened;

don’t keep going over old history.

19Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

Kyle is standing at one of those crossroads moments and as great as the past has been I know that God has something beyond his wildest imagination in store for him in the future. I believe the same is true for every one of us. No matter if you are at a t-intersection and you are forced to take a path you would not have chosen or if you have wonderful options to choose from the Lord response is “Get ready, the best is yet to come.”