Months before our marriage and honeymoon, I had the privilege of traveling down beautiful New York RT. 3 on a 94.22 mile stretch between Watertown and Tupper Lake. The drive was filled with small quaint towns, antique shops, and beautiful eye candy everywhere. I was sold and that when Yolanda and I were married this stretch of country would be part of our honeymoon itinerary. Bonus in the trip, an awesome “Sub” Shop in Tupper Lake (Just like a man ... romance of the taste buds).
With the day of the wedding left behind in the dust of recent memories, we set set out “together as one” on our first of many memorable journeys of life. We were off on an evening drive to Buffalo, New York to see Niagara falls... in the dark? from the USA side?(can't remember much of the Hotel except it was dark and we crashed in much needed sleep)... Dawn arrived ; we had breakfast ... navigated to the Falls and silently wondered ... big water... not real pretty hmm-mm! Some one told us Canada had the better view of the Falls, so we hopped over to Canada.
There we saw the Falls … WOW! We took pictures next to horse drawn carriages - metal fences - light posts ..., looked at the falls, looked at each other, visited the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum ???? looked at each other ... then hopped in the car to get to our next destination .... beautiful Watertown, New York. In the pouring rain, on a night time highway, right past the unseen Thousand Islands we experienced miles and miles of rain, frogs and fog, frogs on windshields, frogs in the fog ... until we finally arrived at our quaint Watertown Honeymoon Motel Cabin. What an adventure and test of the endurance limit of newly-wed-ness. I assured my beautiful bride that tomorrow would be an awesome sunny day with a beautiful drive, filled with heart's delights and treasures of the soul.
Well it was sunny, kinda . As you would have it, the best laid plans of fragile hearted men can be foiled by the unknown events that seem to hover so close to our dreamlike expectations. These subtle events can devastate us if we allow them or they can take us to places that confirm faith. The 94.22 miles of beautiful sights, shops and pleasure, care of New York’s finest road crews, had been reduced to ripped up roads, detours around tree stumps, unending mounds of trash, towns with quaint shops with "CLOSED" signs in the windows ... we never thought it would end. "Hang on! There is still hope!"... There was still that refreshing surprise awaiting for us in the heart of Tupper Lake at the end this irritating drive (Hope had kicked in even though the 2 hour drive had turned into 4).
We pulled into a parking space not far from the Sub Shop. We were tired, hungry, and bladder full … but all that was about to change because hope was becoming sight (I had bragged-up this place for quite a few miles in hopes of mending a disappointing day). We walked up to the door, and we were just about to turn the door knob when we noticed a sign on the window … “CLOSED ON TUESDAYS”. Go fish!
In a weird way we were not too disappointed. We were still tired, still thirsty, still hungry and still in need of a restroom … but something inside us told us that we had the Gift of God, the gift of each other, and opportunities ahead because we were in God's care. Years of collisions of tears and laughter, pain and healing, disappointments and new appointments, fear and faith have worked together to firm up our resolve for the Surprise ahead. The days are still providing the weird moments BUT from the day we trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we have a growing and enduring hope that cannot be disappointed because it is beyond any human dreamlike expectation. We will not be disappointed.
I Corinthians 2:9 – “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” In the economy of the Kingdom, there is no “Closed” sign on the eternal appointments and promises of God. Dream big, the extravagance of our God's love far exceeds all of our dreams.
Happy Father's Day!
HLFA,
Jeff