Friends
Several weeks ago, I told you a story about a teenage Anita, and my family’s unexpected move to Richmond. As I strolled down memory lane, I decided to make this a series with a few more reflections on that time long ago and the lessons learned. Here’s Part 2, and I hope you enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving!
+++
“all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Psalm 139:16 – NIV
Have you ever made a life plan, only to find out that your plan wasn’t the real plan? You think you have things figured out, only to find that God has another plan. That’s exactly what happened to our little nuclear family in the spring of 1977.
My parents and I left Fort Jackson, SC on my 15th birthday headed back home to the family farm in the South Carolina Upstate. We thought settling near our extended family was God’s new plan for us, and it was, except the plan was only an 18 month plan, not the life plan we all thought it would be. A fabulous job offer for my father in Richmond, Virginia was our first sign that God had other things in mind.
Soon, we were pulling up stakes and shipping our household goods north on I-85. But before we could ship our housewares, we had to find a place to live, and that housing search ended up teaching me to pay attention to a funny little feeling I couldn’t yet explain.
Leaving me in South Carolina to stay with my Granny, my parents headed north in March of 1977. Dad started his new job as the senior civil service administrator for the 80th Army Reserve Division, its headquarters located in the Southside of Richmond. Mom went along to start the housing search. After several weeks of house hunting, she had narrowed the list to a couple of good options, and she and my father were anxious for my input. I had not yet laid eyes on this city that was to be our 29th new home, so a plan was concocted to bring me up to Richmond for a few days.
While Dad was at work, Mom and the realtor took me on a house tour, showing me my mother’s top picks. I think she had a favorite, but she refused to voice it, desiring to see my reaction before playing any of her own cards.
It was a cold and rainy day as we trudged around with the real estate agent, discussing the pros and cons of each house. Later, after parting ways with the realtor,Mom and I took a drive around the area. After viewing the narrowed-down list of options, there were two houses that I liked best, but truthfully, neither of them made my heart skip a beat. By comparison to the large, new, and beautifully decorated home we had just sold in SC, these options didn’t quite measure up. I chose to keep that thought to myself, because I knew my mother was making the best of this move as she had all the others. She must have read my thoughts, because she assured me that these were the best picks with regard to our price range and proximity to my father’s workplace.
Mom and I narrowed the list down to two houses in different school districts. One was a newer home with fresh paint and paper, situated in a reasonably nice neighborhood, its major drawback, a postage stamp lot. The other was an older home, a brick rancher with a nice yard chock full of towering oak trees. It had good potential, but it was in serious need of updating.
Both of my top picks had selling points, and both had downsides. Feeling ambivalent, a thought popped into my brain and out my mouth, “Let’s go look at the schools.” I wasn’t sure what looking at each high school would tell me, but somehow it seemed important. Mom fixed her gorgeous brown eyes on me for a long moment, and then her lips parted in a smile as she said, “OK, we can do that!.”
We found the first school quickly and drove around the parking lot. It was a rambling structure with a large football stadium located to one side. The school was a good bit larger than my current high school in SC. We made a lap or two around the parking lot, and I commented without a great deal of enthusiasm, “This is nice. Let’s go see the other school.”
After consulting the map, Mom headed the car in the direction of Route 60. We drove for quite awhile, the subdivisions and shopping centers giving way to forest and farmland. I finally spotted the sign up ahead, and Mom turned left into the school driveway. My eyes took in the two-story brick facade, the packed parking lot, the gymnasium at the side of the building. Mom steered the car toward the back of the school where row upon row of empty bleachers overlooked the football field. As we rounded the parking lot once more, my eyes came to rest on the sign that read “ Midlothian High School.” In that moment, from somewhere deep inside me came a feeling, a feeling I struggle to put into words even now. Staring at that sign, I felt a calling, a certainty that I was where I was supposed to be. I sat there for a long moment, trying to decipher this feeling I couldn’t quite comprehend.
Then I turned to my mother and proclaimed, “Mama, I think this is where I’m supposed to go to school.” Mom held me in her gaze for a long moment before a sweet smile spread across her lovely face, “Well, then it’s the Trent Road house. Let’s go take another look.”
There is a smile on my face as I write these words, because the memory of that moment is still so clear even though nearly 50 years have passed. Why? I suppose it’s because the feeling was so unexpected, and yet so clear. In that moment, I knew what I was supposed to do.
And you know what? My parents did too. They bought the house on Trent Road. They bought that house based on a feeling, a feeling that a 16-year-old girl had about where I was supposed to go to school. That, dear friends, is an action that speaks to me of love, the beautiful love of a good mother and father for their only daughter, and it speaks to me of faith, of the beauty that comes from trusting God with the plan for our lives.
Friends, sometimes God leads us along unfamiliar paths. Our plans don’t always match God’s plans. Still, this I firmly believe, God has a way of working all things together for good, even when we cannot see it, even when we don’t understand. Sometimes, God graces us with a feeling about the path we are supposed to take. Friends, trust those nudges of the Holy Spirit. Pray about them. Pray for them. Let them light your path.
When we submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit, things have a way of working out. On that long ago rainy day, I trusted a feeling, and it all worked out for the good.
+++
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
Psalm 107:1 – NIV
PRAYER
O Loving God, thank You for the leading of the Holy Spirit, for the way You light the path we are to take. Help us to learn to trust the feelings You grace us with, knowing that Your ways are good, and Your plans are perfect.
In the Gracious Name of Jesus, we pray,
Amen
Thanksgiving Blessings to you and yours,
Anita
-APS 11/20/2023
Faith Beyond Sight 