When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy.
You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans.
The Coliseum.
The Michelangelo David.
The gondolas in Venice.
You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full
of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new
language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have
met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after
you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you
begin to notice Holland has windmills…and Holland has tulips. Holland is still a beautiful place.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging
about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say,
“Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that
dream is a very, very significant loss.
But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to go to Italy, you
may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.
You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans.
The Coliseum.
The Michelangelo David.
The gondolas in Venice.
You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full
of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new
language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you never would have
met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after
you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…and you
begin to notice Holland has windmills…and Holland has tulips. Holland is still a beautiful place.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…and they’re all bragging
about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say,
“Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away…because the loss of that
dream is a very, very significant loss.
But…if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to go to Italy, you
may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things…about Holland.
You know, sometimes we get so caught up in life and making it perfect that we miss out on things that God had planned for us...blessings that would have enriched our lives tremendously. This baby girl...in whatever condition she comes to you...is His creation...His blessing on your lives. Enjoy her and let her be the blessing God intended.
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