It was a Sunday night and our helpers were on their day off, so my family and I decided to eat out. Our first choice was a place that served good spareribs at a very affordable price. My wife and I were invited to eat there once, but the kids had not yet tried it, and so they were excited to give it a try. But when we reached the area we could not find it. So we decided to go to another place commonly known as “fake Bob’s”. It was called that because the owner was a former cook of a well known restaurant here called “Bob’s”, and he served food that tasted a lot like his former employer, but at a more affordable price. Our kids had heard about that place and were excited to try it, but when we arrived it was closed.
“Where to next?” the kids asked. So we all decided to have good old Chicken Inasal, the local favorite here in Bacolod. So we drove off to a well known server of Inasal, a place called Aida’s, that had recently opened a new branch in a place near our house – so we thought. When we arrived another restaurant was occupying the place! Ok, so our next choice was “Mang Inasal”, a well known eatery that served “unlimited rice”. We like eating in this place because we leave “busog”, filled, after eating a big piece of chicken leg or thigh, with as much rice as we want. It’s the restaurant you go to when you feel like breaking your diet and gaining a little more weight. Well, this time, upon arriving in the “mini mall” where it was, we couldn’t find a parking space.
When we finally found a parking space it was right in front of another Chicken Inasal restaurant called “Chicken Deli”, also well known, and that also served unlimited rice (they call it Kan-on all you can). It’s as if a light switched on, and the a parking space was reserved for us! And I said “hey, why not here?”. And why not, because the chicken they serve is as good as any other Chicken Inasal place here. So, we ordered, ate and went home full and satisfied. After all the driving around, and all the seemingly “closed doors” we encountered, we finally ended up in a restaurant that was never in our minds at that time, but that ended up satisfying our appetites and filling our stomachs. It’s as if God was leading our way to where He wanted us to eat.
Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.
Life can be so much like what my family and I went through. We make our plans, “drive around” trying to fulfill them. Many times we can’t seem to find the way, or we end up in a dead end, or with circumstances closing the doors to them. Hindrances and missed opportunities frustrate us, sometimes causing us to panic.
But if our lives are in the hands of a Sovereign God, who not only controls our life, but has actually written down its events already in advanced, we know that every closed door, every hindrance that we experience, are just part of the highway He has prepared that will eventually lead us to His plan for us. And even if His plan was not exactly like what we originally had in mind, yet in it we are satisfied, filled, because it is one that was planned by our loving and faithful God. It is where He wants us to be.
Psalm 139:16 … All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
It’s nice to know that even if things do not go exactly the way we planned, or wanted them to be, we will eventually end up where our Lord wants us to be, where He will satisfy and fill us – as long, of course, as we remain fully trusting and dependent on our Sovereign and Loving God.
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