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Didn’t See That Coming

Do you remember your first disappointment as a little girl?

I remember the worst day of my whole life, all seven years of it.

When my brother and I were young, our mother would occasionally let us pick out a comic book. We took those treats very seriously and spent a lot of time choosing just the right one.

Turning the pages of mine, I found an advertisement for a playhouse. As I read the advertisement, with all my seven-year-old reading ability, it was a dream come true.

• Accommodates 4
• Single door
• Windows (2)
• Window Flower Boxes (2)
• Cost: $6.99 plus shipping
• Allow six weeks for delivery

“Of course it would take six weeks to build and ship a playhouse like that,” I thought.

I begged my mother. “Please, please. It is all I’ve ever wanted, a real playhouse.”

My mother tried to warn me.

“I don’t think this is what you’re thinking it will be.” After listening to me beg, she gave in. We tore out the advertisement. My mother wrote a check for $6.99 plus shipping while I headed down the street to tell all my friends that soon, we would be playing in the most wonderful playhouse.

For six weeks, I waited excitedly. And one day, after about six weeks, my mother brings me an envelope, you know, those brown 9 x 12 mailing envelopes. She never said a word as I opened it.

The first thing that fell from the envelope was a card that said:

Materials required: One card table

And I pulled out a heavy-duty plastic bag that had a ‘playhouse’ imprinted on it.

There was the single door, the two windows with flower boxes under them…room for four.

I can remember the look on my mother’s face as she saw the terrible disappointment on mine. She found the card table, put the bag over it. I never climbed under that table and played.

That seems like a lifetime ago, and such a silly thing in comparison to life today, but I have never forgotten.

Little girls grow up and disappointments and heartaches change.

Those the LORD has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Isaiah 51:11 (NIV)

Life today is not what I expected

Whatever season, we never expected to find ourselves here.

My broken heart has nothing to do with a child’s dream of a playhouse that arrived in an envelope. It is living in a house where there should be at least two, missing the one I gave my heart to when I was fourteen, the one who made me feel special, loved me when I was not at my best and wrapped me in strong arms when I simply needed to be held.

But when I get still in this grief, I remember the One who is all those things to me now, and I am comforted.

The LORD will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
He will make her deserts like Eden,
her wastelands like the garden of the LORD.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
Isaiah 51:3 (NIV)

In times when the storm seems unending, our needs so great, when we simply can’t see the end to this hurt, You leave a personal message just for us Lord.

“I, even I, am He who comforts you.”
Isaiah 51:12a

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You that joy and gladness will be found in us again. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that Your Words are true and You can be trusted. We pray for Your guidance and strength to reach out and walk with others in this season. Amen