We just got back from a ten day trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons!  Road trip!! If you’ve ever been to either place, you know that the “thing to do” is to look for wildlife!  Buffalo, bears, moose, elk, big horn sheep…the list goes on.  So it wasn’t surprising that on one particular evening we drove out to the Lamar Valley to see if the wolves would make their anticipated regular appearance. The wolves are special because, once extinct in Yellowstone, they were reintroduced in 1995, and are now making a comeback (I learned that at the Visitor Center! 😉 ).  Binoculars and cameras ready, we sat and we waited for them to come…and we waited…we saw a beaver…and we waited…eating too many pretzel sticks…and we waited, but nothing came.   We soon discovered that pretzels make you thirsty and we drank way too much water in our waiting…it was time to go!! We’d been there so long, so we waited ten more minutes and then decided to leave…each of us a little bummed.

We drove only a few miles when suddenly we were forced to stop.  A huge herd of slowly grazing buffalo were crossing the road in front of us!  Exciting as it was to have them so close to our car…it was annoying to have to wait for them to cross.  I don’t know why I said it, other than it must have been God, I just said, “Well, maybe God is slowing us down for a reason…maybe He has something wonderful up ahead and he doesn’t want us to miss it!  It’s all about His timing!”  A few miles later it happened.  A Mama black bear and her two little cubs had just appeared along the side of the road!  They were so cute!! The only other black bear we had seen on the trip was a far away “dot” on a hill and that was with our binoculars!!  The Mama and her cubs ran in front of our car as cute as could be, the cubs climbed the tree next to us…the whole thing was like an incredible show!! Had we not left when we did, or been slowed down by a herd of buffalo, we would have missed out!  My oldest daughter said it was a miracle! 🙂
How often I don’t see the whole picture!  Sometimes what I want to see isn’t nearly as awesome as what God wants me to see.  God’s out to bless…and His timing is perfect.  If he needs to slow me down with some no-show wolves or a herd of slowly grazing buffalo so I don’t miss out on His blessings, that’s okay by me.

“Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-17.