Life has been busy. A new grandchild adds a lot of work to the parents, and since Nancy and I are here in Greensboro because of the family, it adds much to us as well. And it is a joy! And getting ready for a course on the Parables plus a brief trip to Shoreline to see mom, sister and loved friends at Calvin added more to the busy-ness.

In a couple days I leave for a cycle adventure in Spain and Portugal, then on to Albania to teach at the Torchbearers' Bible School in Erseke. Nancy will join me in London and we travel together to Albania, then she will stay on for a couple weeks after I am finished and head back home. She is teaching two English classes for adults in the community--as a form of outreach from the church there.

Fall has arrived here in Greensboro. One day it was in the 90's, the next in the 70's, and it has stayed in the 70's since. The leaves are just starting to turn, but I hope they do not do so too quickly lest I miss the amazing beauty of fall in this part of the world.

Our granddaughter Colette loves earth-moving equipment, and a week ago a bevy of them appeared in front of our house. About a dozen workers showed up and at the end of the day the street in front of our house, from just past our driveway to the middle of our neighbor's driveway, was repaved. About 100 feet was coated with new tarmac and it looks nice. But for the life of me I can not figure out why they did it. The street that they covered was not worn or rutted, it had no cracks at all. And the entire street, not just a patch in front of our house, was exactly the same. We now have something new, but have no idea why.


And, having pondered that for a bit, just a few days ago a painted dotted line appeared over the new pavement. It is the kind of paint that precedes new cable of some kind--which means that the new street cover will probably be torn up soon for some utility project. Which makes the whole project even more of a mystery.

Now I have to assume that someone knows what this is all about. But that someone is not I. It all looks like a foolish waste of time and material to me. But maybe it is not.


And as I have been thinking about this (a little, not a lot) I have been reminded of some of the things that God does in our lives--the things that seem to make no sense at all. I mean the hard things or the strange things, the things that make us wonder about the plan of God, or if he has any plan at all.

The great difference, of course, is that the things about God's doings that make no sense to us simply reflect what the Psalmist says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. (Isaiah 55:8) Those things are right and good and wise--they come from a God who cares for us to a degree that exceeds our wildest imagination and who expresses that caring in ways that at times exceeds our capacity to comprehend. Whereas such can not be assumed about the work of paving... And this all reminds me of the mystery of God, of our limited ability to understand, and calls me to trust him in those things that I can not understand...Which is quite a bit of life!