Redemption

My cousin came to visit for an hour last spring on her way back from the Oregon Coast.  (A very brave girl, to visit the Oregon Coast over spring break!)  As she was leaving she mentioned that we needed to keep our eyes open for her friend who was coming to Oregon on her mission.

“Her mother and I grew up together,” my cousin told me.  “She lived right next door and we were best friends.  She got baptized but when we moved she stopped going to church, got a lot of tattoos, and eventually got pregnant.  Can you imagine how surprised I was when she got in contact with me last year and told me that she’d married in the temple, had 4 more children, and her oldest daughter was getting ready to serve a mission??”

My cousin may have been surprised, but I wasn’t.  You see I have been surrounded by these stories for the last year.  Stories of the son who unexpectedly decided to serve a mission.  Of the long inactive adult who made his way back to the church late in life.  Stories about estranged children making tentative moves to reestablish relationships and of troubled teens choosing to change their lives. 

Stories of redemption.

I have heard so many of these stories that I have stopped being surprised. (Though I have not stopped being glad.)

I was sitting one day thinking about all of these stories and wondering what they meant; wondering what I was supposed to learn from them.  And as I was thinking about them, the spirit spoke powerfully to my mind and my heart.  It told me that what I was supposed to be learning was simply that God’s plan works.  That God’s plan is to redeem His children, and that He will.  In His own time, and in His own way.  He may need our help from time to time, but this is His plan and not ours.  So we can relax and trust him and have faith in Him and His plan. 

And His redemption.