“For you know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord, plans of good and not evil, plans to give you a future and a hope.” Jer 29:11
A few years ago, I encountered a cab driving angel. Well, that’s what I called him. He had gold teeth, a “processed” hairdo like a 1950s James Brown, a paisley shirt, plaid pants, and alligator shoes—in short, he was a character. As I sat in the back of the cab, giving my destination, I thought I saw his gold tooth twinkle in the combination moon/street lighting. Ummmm . . .
Friday evening Chicago traffic was a mixed bag of stragglers trying to make it home from work, to early party-goers out for an evening on the town. I was stressed, an emotional mess, and in a hurry to go nowhere in particular. And, this man wanted to talk. Umph!
Peering aimlessly from the surroundings of the cab and the goings-on outside, my eyes fell upon a sign he had taped to the dash . . . ” God is never caught without a plan.” Immediately, as if knowing I had finally read the little poster, he began to speak more emphatically than before. “You know God loves you, right?” I nodded in agreement.
He went on to speak about how, when some things don’t work out the way we want, we get discouraged. “But, no matter what happens, God is never caught without a plan.” I had to admit to myself that I needed to hear what the “angel” had to say. Even with all the messing up I had done, did God really have more for me? As I reached my destination, the strange angel had repeated that “God is never caught without a plan” at least four or five times. Wow.
I was reminded of a scripture that I’d heard: “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you . . . ” and another that God always had good plans for me. So really, no matter how much disappointment or failure I felt I’d had, God had a plan for my life.
Exiting the cab, I was a little more encouraged—a lot more, really. A new hope began to brew inside me. As I reached back to receive my change, I saw that tooth twinkle and this time the eyes too. Ummm, I wondered, could this really have been an angel in disguise?
