Little choices

Idon’t know if you ever really know when you’re experiencing life chang ing moments. I suppose on your wedding day or when your children are being born you know things are changing, but in the grand scheme of things the moments that obviously alter our lives are few and far between; most of the moments that flip a switch in our lives are only noticeable after the fact.

The changing of a church seems innocent enough and deciding to go serve at a homeless ministry on a random Tuesday surely can’t chart a new course for your life, right? Moving across town because your job transferred you is just a simple, practical step to save on gas, not a decision that could potentially play a role in shaping your entire future, right?

And going to dinner with a girl you’d seen lead worship at that new church, the same girl you’d bumped into at the homeless ministry and lived right around the corner from your new place is just a first date, right?

This weekend we spent our anniversary taking the kids on a tour of all the places that were significant to our story before they came along and while I sat in the very place where we had that first meal, I watched our three children play in the snow and was overwhelmed with what all those little choices lead to.

Those two folks that seemed so old at the time but were really so young, had no way of knowing where they would be eleven years later; in my heart I knew we’d eventually be married, but I had no way of knowing all the twists and turns that would come along with it.

We didn’t know about moving to Kentucky and then to Alabama; we had no clue about the friends we’d make and lose, or the ways in which God would shape our marriage that would be wonderful and also really painful.

And we didn’t know that eleven years later we’d go back to that spot with our kids that we didn’t know we’d have, all because we decided to have supper on a random Wednesday.