I’m headed off to a reunion of my graduating class from nursing school.  I’ve done a pretty good job of avoiding making public just exactly how long it has been it is since we graduated, so I won’t be publishing it here either.  A girl has to keep her secrets sometimes!

Let’s just say it was more than a decade ago.  Maybe more than that.

Class reunions are likely to make one do some soul searching.  We look at the old yearbooks and pictures and somehow can’t believe we were that young once and we wonder how time could go by so quickly.  When those smiling graduation pictures were taken, we had big dreams for the things we’d do and the places we’d go and the people we’d become.

I gave one of the graduation speeches that night many years ago as we donned our white uniforms for the first time to replace the blue uniforms designating us as students.  I found a copy of that speech a few days back.  I talked about how much we had been through and how much we had to look forward to in nursing.  And in life.

I even read a poem.  Because that’s what you do when you give a graduation speech, right?

Time does go by quickly.  People always say that, but it’s true.  One minute you’re standing on a graduation stage with a diploma in hand, and the next minute you’re headed off to see people you haven’t seen in decades.  It’s going to be interesting to hear what has happened in their lives, where they’ve been, where they are now.  And I wonder how many of us are anxious, wondering if our lives will sound as exciting and fulfilled as others.

But you know what?  This has been my life, and it really doesn’t matter how I think it compares to others. God and I have walked through it together, and I’ve always understood that whatever happened, those were His plans for me. Some of His plans exceeded anything I could have imagined.  Others weren’t the plans I would have chosen for me, but His plans always work together for good.  And I can rest in that.

What a blessing to look back over the last 30 years (oops) and see how God has been ever-present and gracious and faithful to me.  In the good times, and the not-so-good times and everything in between.

No matter how much time has gone by, it’s good to stop and reflect every once in awhile.  And see that those days and months and years…and decades…were all part of God’s incredible plan.

For me.

A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.  Proverbs 16:9

There are many plans in a man’s heart, nevertheless the LORD’s counsel–that will stand. Proverbs 19:1

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Psalm 37:23

O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.  Jeremiah 10:23