Since the unexpected is unforeseen and unanticipated, it is by nature something that we can't prepare ourselves to experience. We can all, to some degree, take necessary precautions to minimize risk, but not every circumstance can be prevented.
My husband and I have been on a six week camping trip throughout New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. It is a trip that we started planning and preparing for a few months ago. With any trip, requiring such a long time away from the conveniences of home, we took many details into careful consideration before starting out.
However, not every detail, of every day, is totally within our control or plans. Sometimes the unexpected comes along and we are faced with circumstances that we don't particularly like, or feel prepared. When Jack took a fall one morning in Utah, that resulted in surgery to fix a compound fracture of his big toe, we were forced to react and draw strength from a Source more resilient than our own. It clearly was the Lord who carried us through and saw to every detail, details that were not in our control.
There were many changes that we had to make in regard to our trip, after the fall. The biggest change was that our physical camping had to stop. We could not risk infection to his toe, so hotels became our new campsite.
This evening we will call it a day, as we should arrive home. We will have completed a drive of just over two thousand miles since leaving Utah.
Our adventure certainly took a different course, but it continued to bless us powerfully in the people that we met along the way. One example was a young man we met coming through the Rocky Mountains who held the door for Jack after we finished our coffee. His will be a face and a smile that I will always remember, for he will forever be a part of our revised adventure!
Lamentations 3:22-23 NLT The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.