I am so enjoying this relaxing week off between Christmas and New Years. All the “need to” things of the Christmas season are done and we just get to enjoy each other, and the cookies that are still left.
Yes, my living room is still a mess, but that’s chiefly because I’ve been hanging out with family. I’ll get to it; don’t worry.
I’m also enjoying doing more reading than I get to when my schedule is busy. And I’m loving the book I’m in. It’s fiction, which is unusual for me. I generally prefer non-fiction. But there are a few authors for whom I make an exception.
And this book was rather a surprise. I only own it because I picked it up at the library a few weeks ago, on their rack of books that are free to take. I noticed it was by this author, and I hadn’t read anything by her in years, so I grabbed it. Not a fluffy romance, you understand. Just sort of light and easy to read. Probably what most people would consider beach reading, but I never go to the beach, and during the summer is when I tackle complicated books that I can’t concentrate on during the school year.
So I’m a little more than halfway through the book, and I’ve gotten caught up in the lives of these characters. I’m enjoying them, maybe starting to see how they remind me of a relative in my real life.
But I’m also starting to see how this book is going to end. There’s plenty left, but it’s sort of like in a movie where it’s just obvious these two characters are going to end up together. They’re just perfect for each other, they’re both single, whatever. As I’m reading, I can predict already what the happy ending is going to be, for most of them.
Which is fine. Like I said, this is brain candy for me. And the characters are all enjoyable, so I’m happy that it’s all going to work out for them. And the predictable endings all work. It just makes sense. So I’m not disappointed that it’s foreseeable; why would I argue with what are clearly great solutions to all these problems?
And this morning I thought to myself that this is pretty much what God is thinking as He looks down on my life. Or my family’s. Or my friends’. He knows how it’s all going to work out, and it’s just so obvious how great these situations are going to work out. To Him, the solutions are obvious. Even as we make stupid mistakes, he has a way to tweak the plot to insure the happy ending He has promised.
And just as I’ve grown to care what happens to the fictional people in my book, He cares. We are, each of us, His children, and He loves us more than we can imagine. And once we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior, we can be sure that all plot twists will be for our ultimate good.
Light Expectations 