I don't know about you, but I get impatient. I want dinner to be done cooking. I want my kitchen to be cleaned (and I don't want to have to put in the work to get it there). I want this baby to come (8 weeks, folks! 8.) I want my student loans paid off. I want to buy a house. I want to know the results of the building campaign we just launched at work. I sound like Veruca Salt on Willy Wonka: I Want It Now.
Well, something happened this week that has both continued the walk I took down memory lane on Feb 4 AND has reminded me the importance of patience. God has a plan.
I dated Chase through almost all of my high school years. I started dating him during 2nd semester my freshman year, and I never dated anyone else. (Although, as I mentioned in my previous post, we did have a couple of breaks.) Chase has always been good for me because I can be a bit serious. He is not. He's funny. He's clever. He jokes. He pranks. He helps me have fun.
During Chase's junior year of high school, he was the business manager for the junior class. This was, at the time, the most important job any class officer could hold. Yeah. I'm not sure how Chase got elected. Anyway, he was good at the job. He sweet talked the lady who held the keys into trusting him and he spent 4th hour and any other study hall "restocking" the candy machines and pop machines and candy store. (Yes, in those days, we were allowed to have things such as candy machines and pop machines on campus, during school hours. And amazingly, obesity was generally avoided. Weird. It's like personal choice had something to do with it.... But I digress.)
Fourth hour was a critical period. You see, 3 days a week, the choir met during that period. On the other 2 days a week, the band played. There were options for yearbook and other small extracurricular classes, but it was one of the few periods where much of the student body was in study hall on one day or another.
Now, they weren't SUPPOSED to sell candy during school hours. And kids weren't SUPPOSED to leave study hall or extracurriculars to buy candy, but it WAS the hour just before lunch, and you know how teen agers are... In any case, it was a profitable hour to be "working" at "restocking" things "in case" anyone stopped by.
There were certain seniors who were regulars. Greg was one of them. Not only did he frequent the candy store, but he also was great friends with Chase and a few other junior boys who "helped" in the candy store on a regular basis.
That year, Chase's junior year, he and his two best friends made a plan. They would hide a bag of Skittles and a year later, they would go back, find the Skittles, and eat them while on stage during graduation. A final farewell of sorts. Greg, a year older than them and about to graduate, was sure his part of the plan was to hide the Skittles. So they signed a contract (the only logical thing to do) and gave Greg the Skittles and contract to hide.
He did so with gusto, creating a treasure map that took them all over the school and town, recalling various memories they'd made together. When the time came, the three boys (now seniors) followed their treasure map which led back into the candy store. But alas! No Skittles or contract could be found! They spent a long time peeking up into the ceiling of that candy store, CERTAIN that the hidden treasure MUST be there. The map said it was. All to no avail.
Fast forward to February 7, 2014, 13 years later. I received this text and picture from a coworker at school:
"[A student] brought me this today:"
I can't tell you how many times I've heard the story of the hidden Skittles. How many times those boys talked about how they couldn't find them. How many times they've wondered where Greg hid them. 13 years. That's a loooooooooong time for a bag of Skittles.
Unfortunately, the mice got the best of the candy, and you can see at the top of the page where they had chewed into the contract. None the less, what once was lost, now is found.
I believe that the mice-eaten Skittles and contract found 13 years after their placement (they were, in fact, in the ceiling of the candy store - thanks to this year's junior parents and students who found them!) have provided more laughter, delight and enjoyment than had they been found on the designated evening.
It's just a little thing - this silly note and candy. But God knew where it was the whole time. I'm not saying He protected it. (Clearly, He didn't protect the candy... or maybe it was His divine purpose to have it placed there to carry some little mouse family through the winter. Who knows!?!) But He did bring it back to its rightful owners years and years after the fact.
We all know that little section in Matthew 10 where Christ points out how God cares for the sparrows, and says if that's the case, how much more must He care for us. Things like this, things like my button (you can read that blog post here: The button story ) always remind me to rest again. Rest in His care. His timing. His purpose.
I don't understand it - good, bad, funny, sad, joyful, painful, sorrowful - the shades of life. But He understands. He cares. I don't have to have it all now (despite that I want it all now). How about I trust Him? If He keeps track of the minutia such as sparrows and buttons and Skittles and hand-scrawled contracts, He certainly keeps track of the things that really matter.
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