Sometimes this thought catches me off guard.  How in the world did I get here?

How did I get here, where I’m shopping for snow tires and thinking about emergency things I need to keep in my car in case I get trapped somewhere during a blizzard?  How did I get here, where I found myself on a recent Saturday afternoon cheering on the Seton Hall University basketball team when I never watch basketball, much less college basketball, but now I do because I actually work at Seton Hall University?  How did I get here, where I sit in church on Sunday mornings on a pew surrounded by family and there are no anxious thoughts swirling around in my head about what time I need to leave for the airport so I can get back to Florida for a new work week?

Seriously.  How did I get here?

Even though I know the answer, it still amazes me. “And He has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.”  (Acts 17:26)

That’s how I got here.  Somehow, in the vast scheme of things, this was in God’s plan.  It didn’t randomly happen.  I didn’t wake up one day last summer and say to myself, “Hmmm….I think I’ll just pack up my life from the last 30 years and move back north.”  I believe God had this on the blueprint of my life from the very beginning.  Pre-appointed.  It sort of blows my mind to try to comprehend all the things that needed to happen to make it fall into place. And yet they did.  And here I am.

I’m finding comfort in it as I look to the days ahead.  There is a new anticipation about the future.  If God could show Himself so evidently in bringing me here, if He could provide in such awesome and gracious ways through all of the decisions and all of the drama, there can be no doubt in my mind that He’s ordering the next weeks and months and years as well.

And I’m seeing how it applies to my bigger life questions as well.  How do I find myself here, where I’m still single and this isn’t the life I imagined I’d be living?  How do I find myself here,  where I’ll be making big decisions yet again about a place to live, and I’d much rather not be doing it alone?  While I still don’t know the “why”, I understand in a fresh way the “how”. I’m here because this is right where God wants me to be.  For today.  Just as He had a plan for me to come back to New Jersey, He has a plan for the rest of this life of mine as well.  No need to fret.  No need to worry.  No need to question.

There’s no place I’d rather be than in God’s will, following God’s sometimes wild plans.  Here.

Known to God from eternity are all His works. Acts 15:18

My times are in Thy hand.  Psalm 31:15

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1