A change in dinner plans

My husband offered to grill our dinner the other night, and I was delighted to have the night off from making a meal.

As he was cooking, a storm started moving in, and I started wondering whether grilling was such a great idea. But the steak and potatoes were already cooking, so I figured we might as well see this through. Thunder boomed and lightning flashed, but our dinner was cooking along just fine.

Then, suddenly, the flames burned out, and we realized the propane tank on the grill was empty. We’ve known we were running a little low on gas, but we didn’t expect to run out in the middle of a thunderstorm.

My husband got drenched pulling the steak and potatoes off the grill and bringing them inside. I slid the food into the oven to finish the meal, taking over as chef du jour.

As I pulled together a few vegetables as side dishes, I thought about how often in life our plans change, and we just have to adapt.

I’m thinking that this fall as we look ahead to a school year that I had thought was going to be fairly simple and straightforward—and now seems much more complicated. My children are going to be back in school for the first time in 18 months, and—as I follow the news around COVID—I’m pretty anxious about it.

With the academic and social challenges every fall brings, I’m always a little nervous heading into a new school year. This year, I’m concerned in a different way. I worry that—in a best-case scenario—we’ll spend the fall in and out of quarantine, and that—in a worst-case scenario—someone in our family will get sick.

There’s so much about the months ahead that I don’t know. And maybe that’s just as well. Because God knows what the future holds, and he holds it—and us—in His hands.

“Let nothing frighten you,” St. Teresa of Avila said. “Who has God, lacks nothing. God alone is enough.”

God is with us through the storm and through the changes in plans. He knows we have what we need to face the challenges ahead. Time and again, He gently leads and accompanies us along the way.

As we sat down to dinner, the rain was still falling. But the worst of the thunderstorm had passed. Our ribeye was moist and tender, and the potatoes were fluffy. We enjoyed a perfectly fine dinner, even though it hadn’t come together exactly the way we had planned. We might have run out of fuel and scrambled to make alternate cooking plans, but God made sure we had everything we needed.

And He will do the same tomorrow.

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