In the midst of being out of breath, along the steep incline, I stop and gaze at the surprising beauty. Glorious colors shimmer in the morning sunlight. These uncultivated marmalade and violet blooms greet me. I look a little closer and they are literally growing out of a rock alongside a curvy road that seems to lead to no place of consequence. The landscape around them isn't quaint pasture with distant mountain views, but instead a farmer' messy house with a blue plastic sheet as a makeshift shed.
Most of life is not "a walk in the park" as much as I would like it to be; with wide open places and a level path alongside a bubbling stream. Most of life is a winding, obscure path with the uncertainty as the unmarked destination. Even if we try to pave the road broad before us with a well managed schedule; God seems to have other plans. Even in the midst of our wisely arranged life and ministry, God will mostly likely drop in with the unexpected. It's not until part way through the detour, that I start to realize God is up to something. And that something is indeed beautiful.
In the past when I have thought of the well-know and quoted verse of Jeremiah 29:11, I think of the "prosper", "hope" and "future" to be a do-able life, pleasant with good days and pats on the back from others for a job well done. But instead it will most likely be hard days where I can't seem to figure things out and my trouble shooting isn't getting me anywhere. It will often be days where others will not understand or even where my character looks rather tarnished.
But those days, the rocky-road days, are indeed the prosper, hope and future. They are a part of God's gracious plan for me. Growth of my character. Straining out my pride and selfishness. Softening my heart to long for and depend on Him more desperately. Turning my gaze from earth to desiring, instead, heaven and the joys awaiting me there. God's work in my life and knowing Him more intimately is often the prosper, hope and future promised. They are the radiant surprise of color along the way. And knowing Him more and His work in my life is the unexpected and overlooked beauty along the difficult growing path of life.
