Dear Nestlings,
This weekend we went on an last-minute trip to celebrate your cousin’s graduation. On the way, we planned to swing by Glacier National Park, a place I visited years ago, but you have never seen. Since everything happened at the last minute, we made an Airbnb reservation we knew little about, making our choice based on the cheapest option available within somewhat close range of the park.
When we arrived at our Airbnb Friday evening, we found ourselves at a lake in Montana called Loon Lake. Hidden at the end of a gravel road, the scene was straight out of a nature book. The lake was ringed by mountains covered with towering pine trees. The sound of loons actually hung in the air. We’d come to a 4H camp, prior to opening week. The camp had four different docks with canoes and kayaks waiting for our use. We were the only guests there.
We had planned on rising in the morning and driving over to Glacier National Park, a piece of nature people travel miles to see. While our family loves National Parks, they aren’t always our favorite, since there are usually so many people there and there are often huge restrictions on which hikes you can take and when. A friend had told us that Glacier National Park was in many ways a “driving national park,” with beautiful vistas you couldn’t see anywhere else, but—at this time of year especially—somewhat inaccessible. And so, we decided to wake up and stay at our accidental lake instead, enjoying the beauty we had accidentally found.
The next day, as I sat on the dock watching each of you paddle out onto the water (while I relaxed on dock with a book in hand!) I had a few pangs of wondering. Had we done the right thing? Should we have driven over to Glacier? Were we missing some grand adventure that we wouldn’t have another chance to take? I am an overthinker and I couldn’t quite settle in on the idea that we had accidentally chosen the right thing to do. This hadn’t been the plan. Had we given up?
But the scenery was so beautiful! We were all having the loveliest and and best of times!
And I realized I do this a lot in my life. I make plans to go do something I’m told everyone loves and that will bring me joy too. These are educated pieces of information and based on experiences I do actually like. I’m not talking about trying to head somewhere I hate just because someone else likes it. I’m talking about those times we really are trying to do a good thing and somehow end up waylaid in our travels anyhow. There we go, off to accomplish our goals, to see and do the the things we’ve been dreaming of, and then—along the way—God takes us somewhere else. Somewhere we haven’t heard of or even considered, somewhere we could never have discovered on our own. And we sit there, wondering if it’s really where we should be.
How exhausting and what a waste of joy! God literally found us a private lake with boats in the middle of the Montana wilderness and told us to Enjoy! And there I was, wondering, wondering, wondering if we were in the “best” place.
The thing is, I want to live a life where I trust God more to bring those experiences to my life that really matter. I want to believe God knows the best gifts and experiences for me. I don’t mean that I don’t want to try to go places. God couldn’t have taken us to Loon Lake if we weren’t trying to be supportive of our family, if we weren’t already seeking for beauty along the way. But when we were, and when He offered us something better, we all needed to be ready to listen and take the gift He offered us instead of barrelling ahead with what we thought was “the right thing.” We also didn’t need to be the millionaires who owned the houses on the other side of the lake. He had brought us to this place as we were, tumbling its beauty into our laps as an unexpected blessing that was His to give.
I think all of us will remember Loon Lake for a long time. Except Ellie, who was in Ecuador, so that’s probably okay too. I’m so glad we could go together and receive such a gift of beauty and rest for our family. I hope we can always stop and live the beautiful gifts we’ve been given. There’s so many of them, and I’m glad we get to see them all together.
Love,
Mom