Detours

Finding myself detoured from my original West Texas journey, I'm now in the midst of twists and turns as the days and hours are kind of jumbled between necessary work for my friend as she journeys with the family who has suffered such loss, and time carved out for time together to share some joys. 

A walk this morning in a pocket park nearby to begin this day of twists and turns. 

My friend suggested I look at all the detours found in scripture. Some were correcting the wrong path chosen by someone else, but sometimes, God put that detour in the road with His own destination in mind:

Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus detoured to Egypt on their way home from Bethlehem to Nazareth. 

Paul took lots of detours on his missionary trips. On his trip to Asia Minor, Paul detoured eastward to take advantage of better roads to reach Antioch.

Jesus detoured out of his way to Samaria where he healed ten lepers, 

All of these people set off on a particular path, probably fairly certain of their destination. But along the way God said, “Wait, I want you over here instead."

I was detoured on my trip to Marfa. I am certain there was purpose for me to take a different route this week. 

And now this morning, thinking I was settled in Beth's backyard with my Starbucks and The New York Times, 

a call came for Beth to come to the hospital where a dear older parishioner was on life support after surgery. So we hastened to the hospital, thankfully local this time. 

Another change in direction. 

Thankfully, there were no detours as we settled into pedicures after the hospital visit!

Today Delta Airlines was gracious as I called to request a detour in my itinerary to return home. I'm grateful for this. 

And now, seated on a bench at St. Mary's, I am thoughtful about how God shakes up our travel plans, often for good reasons that we could not have imagined. 

God is in the detours.