Plan B Is What We Do

Carlos joined us for the free store conversation on Wednesday morning and continued leading us through the book of Galatians in the New Testament.  He led us in a discussion of the two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, and their symbolic significance which he told us was deep stuff.  But we have learned that Carlos is fearless and very helpful about dealing with the deep stuff and so we ploughed on knowing it would be worth the effort even if we didn't understand it all.

We had a little fun with the idea that Abraham had two wives as well as two sons.  The men weren't sure that having two wives would work that well.  George was certain that two would be too many.  One of our friends said that the extra wife would just be one more woman to beat  his balls which made us all laugh.  Linda didn't think it would be any better to have two husbands, especially given her current circumstances in a tent in the woods which also made us smile.

Carlos told us that God had an A Plan for Abraham's life which included giving him children more numerous than could be counted.  However, Abraham and his wife Sarah both were getting older and still had no children so the time came when they decided they needed a B Plan.  So Sarah suggested that Abraham have sex with the slave girl Hagar as a way to have the children they were promised.  As it turned out Hagar got pregnant and Sarah got jealous and Abraham got grief.  So Plan B didn't work so well and Hagar and Ishmael ended up in the desert about to die.  Fortunately God intervened and spared Hagar and Ishmael and went back to work with Abraham and Sarah on Plan A.

At this point Sheila and Rick joined our discussion.  We all shared our sympathy with Sheila over the loss of her husband Dave.  Carlos asked how they were doing and invited them to talk about what they were feeling.  Sheila eventually did talk about her feelings in losing her husband Dave.  She told us that losing a husband was very different than what she had experienced in losing her sister and mother years ago.  She told us that the house just seemed so empty without him.  She said that she even missed things about him that at one time seemed a bit irritating, like the TV playing too loud.  But she told us that it helped to have the support of friends around her and others that were contacting her through Facebook.

We wrapped up our conversation by talking about how our Plan B is often not the best plan but that God continues to work toward the A Plan for our lives.  That sounded to us like very good news.