The Family Plan

Our beloved van might have had its last adventure, and we’re back to being a one-car family for now. We’re still in the thick of a long, hot summer holiday. The people (specifically, me) are going crazy.

But here’s the cool thing...
We’ve unintentionally written some default codes into our family system for a time such as this. Yesterday, Chris came home to hand over his car keys. I had my trusty adventure bag packed and ready. He put a bucket of toys between the little boys and buckled them in. One was having a panic-level meltdown; one was wrought with concern for his brother’s “hard time”, and two parents had tears in tired eyes watching it all play out. The little guys and I left - with a backup safety plan and two pullovers on the side of the road.

When we don’t know what to do in a hard time, we do what we’ve done before. We drove the same roads, parked in the same spot, and crossed the same street hand-in-hand. We know the aquarium like the back of our hands, and the new exhibit felt like Christmas morning. Battling, lamenting brothers clicked in to running, jumping and being fully alive in the place they’ve done so much life. I could turn my hypervigilating down a notch and relax into auto-pilot mode too. The penguins were swimming, and my boys were smiling.

When life felt too loud, too chaotic and too unstable, there was already a family plan in place. We just needed to tune in to our family’s DNA to turn everything else down.

There might be truth in that for all of us in God’s family too. When it’s all too much and you can’t seem to remove yourself from the storm, your Father has written a default plan for you. His name is Jesus.