God Always Knows

Before Abe was laid off, he was driving approximately 7 minutes to work every morning. When he was re-hired, he was hired by a different company whose main project, which Abe is working on, is about 25 minutes away. From 7 minutes to 25 minutes--for Abe, who had been making the 7 minute commute for more than 4 years, this was a switch. Just the same, we were so thankful to have him back to work that the few extra minutes' drive was a price we were willing to pay.

We had no idea how fortunate he was to be hired by this company at this time, and how relatively short Abe's new commute would be.

It turns out that the shop he used to work for is encouraging all of its workers to procure cars with good fuel economy because all of its jobs--for the next several months, at least--are not local. Abe spoke with a fellow today who works for Abe's former employer. He lives about half an hour north of us--and is still driving over an hour and a half north to get to work. Some of the locations of the company's jobs are so far removed that the company has rented houses for its workers to live in during the week--the commute there and back would just eat up too much daylight. So these guys travel up there at the beginning of the week and return home to their families on the weekends.

Praise the LORD that He knew all of this! We had no idea this was the case with Abe's former employer. In fact, we were stymied by the fact that there were men still working with the company who had far less seniority, if you will. And when a friend of his got called back to work and Abe didn't, we were discouraged. We couldn't understand why they weren't asking Abe back. We couldn't understand, but it turned out that it was because God was at work with a better plan.

This just goes to show you that God Always Knows. He knew that if Abe worked for his former company, he'd likely be working far, far away from his family--possibly away from us for days at a time. Now we realize that a 25 minute commute is a huge gift. God knew, and worked in His amazing ways to put Abe out of the minds of the people who might have asked him back to work--and into hours of commute. God knew this would take my husband away from me. And when I plan to be in labor delivering a baby in just a few short months, and when you consider that with my last baby, I arrived at the hospital at 8 centimeters, there probably wouldn't have been time for Abe to make it back from whatever distant land he was working at, a 25 minute drive is a blessing. God knew all of this.

We are so grateful that though we don't always understand how or why God works, He always does, and His plan is always best. Amazing!