Exceedingly, Abundantly Above

I got a phone call yesterday that tearfully overwhelmed me.  My friend is having a baby.

We don't talk often.  Once every few months.  When we do, we just pick up from where we left off.  The last time we talked, I was giving her wedding updates and I asked if she and her husband were still thinking about children.  She'd had a miscarriage a couple of years ago and though they wanted children, it had been a while since then and still...nothing.  She's entering her late 30s and was unsure if it would ever happen for them.  She said if it happened, it would be wonderful, but if it didn't, that would be okay, too.  She said they might consider adoption.

But she called me yesterday and told me she's having a baby.  She's far enough along that she felt comfortable sharing the news.  I was overjoyed.  But what really gave me this overwhelming feeling of wonder was that the last time we'd talked, she was already pregnant, but just didn't know it yet.  While she was telling me she didn't know whether it would ever happen and if it never did, that would be okay, it had already happened.  There was something holy and wonderful about that thought.

It made me cry because I was overjoyed for her. It made me cry because it made me reflect on my own "unexpected" experience of crossing paths with my future husband.  It made me cry because it gave me hope.

I see now more clearly than I ever have that things are never "settled."  Finding a life partner is a milestone for sure, but each stage of life brings a new set of questions and a new set of uncertainties.  My friend's news somehow reassured me that God knows where we are, what we desire and what we need at every stage of life.  Her news reminded me that not only does God provide, He goes beyond what we could have ever imagined or thought possible for ourselves.