That morning we packed the truck with our last belongings still at the house. For the final time we started to pull out of the driveway of the home we bought five years before.
Then we saw it. Somehow overnight a road construction sign found its way to the end of our driveway. It faced us directly as we stopped to turn into the street. The orange caution sign read, “Detour Ahead.”
I’ve thought of that sign often over the last six years.
That home was the first and only home we ever owned. When we bought it we thought we had the the future mapped out. We left it that morning not really knowing where we were going. We were taking a detour.
Oh, we had a new home to move into, but we didn’t have any specific plans for the future. All we knew was we needed to leave that house for a home that didn’t come with the bonds of a mortgage.
A year after moving, Dave took a new job. We started making plans for the future again. Our second child was born. Then a month after Wade came home from the hospital, Dave was laid off. So, Dave went to work for his dad, but we knew we were still on the detour.
A few months later Dave started college for the second time in his life. School turned out to be a three-and-a-half year-long leg of the detour.
The road’s been bumpy.
Working full-time and going to school full-time means Dave’s often away from home more than he’s at home.
We felt it was important for me to be at home with our boys, so I didn’t go back to work. One income means our budget is small, and there isn’t a lot of room for unforeseen or extra expenses.
Many times over the last six years I’ve wondered where this detour leads, if it ever ends, if it’s worth it? Then I remember that sign at the end our driveway. It was more than a coincidence. It was a Divine signal along the road of life. A sign from God.
Yes, a literal sign.
It’s just like Him, really. We expect flashes of light and claps of thunder. Instead he puts an orange caution sign at the end of your driveway.
To me that sign said, “I’m sending you in a different direction. It won’t be easy. You don’t know where you’re going or how long it takes, but there is a destination.”
It comforts me to know His purpose is in all of this.
When I’m really weary of this side trip on the way to the rest of our lives, I remember Proverbs 3: 5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”
After years of waiting, it feels like the detour is about to end. Dave finishes school next April. He’ll begin a job search that I believe will lead us to the destination of this long odyssey. I still don’t know where or what that is, but I trust that the Lord is directing our path.
Because even though I don’t know the final destination of this detour, I know the purpose now. To teach us to trust God, and follow him willingly, without question, even when we don’t have all the answers.
Maybe somewhere in heaven there’s a GPS with our names on it that says, “You have arrived.”
I certainly hope you find yourself headed where you want to go! 🙂 I know all too well the detours that life can take and like you I try to embrace them as a way to believe that something better/different is coming.