Prepared in Advance

While I slept this morning, my automatic coffee maker made coffee for me.  My automatic bread machine made cranberry bread for me.  When my alarm automatically went off at the right time, I got up to enjoy the automatically made coffee along with the automatically made bread, while reading an automatic electronically delivered devotion.

It may have seemed automatic this morning, but that’s only because of all the preparation the night before.  If one were to look only at the events of the morning, it would be easy to assume life was easy.  Just get up, pour yourself some coffee, and eat the hot, ready-for-you breakfast.  But it’s not that simple.  The preparation the night before took effort.

That’s the hard part for me.  Knowing how and when to prepare, and putting forth the effort to do something with hope and confidence of a future benefit.  Any fool can pick a tomato.  It takes someone with a lot more foresight and action to plant the tomato plant three months earlier.

It might be nice to be the guy who is always prepared, but I am not that guy.  Sometimes I miss the chance.  Sometimes I don’t see what’s coming.  Sometimes, when I am very tired or very busy, I don’t do what needs to be done to be prepared for tomorrow.  It is in those times especially that I realize I am not in control.  I can’t prepare for everything.  Even if I had the energy and willpower, I don’t have the foresight.  But there is One who does.

Perhaps at times I face situations where I am unprepared so that I will learn to rely more on the One who is always prepared.  He knows the future and He is willing to direct my path if I will listen and follow.  He is never surprised; always prepared for what is ahead.  He is in fact, preparing a place for me.  I am sure that place is in Heaven.  But I think there’s a good chance He’s preparing some places for me on Earth too.  Places I will be next year, or next month, next week, tomorrow . . . or this afternoon.

I will try my best to be prepared.  To use wisdom and good judgement, paired with courage and willpower to act in preparation for the future.  But if on occasion I should happen to arrive at a place in life for which I feel totally unprepared, I pray that God will give me comfort, and remind me of His presence.  I pray that He will remind me that long before I arrived, He was already there, preparing for me.