So, I have to give credit where credit is due. My friend, Mary Ann, just gave me the title for this post when I told her this story a few minutes ago.
Listen to this. As often happens, I got busy with the end of the school year activities, work, and life in general and again waited until the last minute to plan our summer vacation. I checked the online listings for the area we had originally planned to go and it was all picked over. There was nothing left at a reasonable price. In desperation, I punched the dates we are free to go on vacation into the computer and did a worldwide search. All of these cool worldwide destinations came up. Hawaii looked nice – the room prices were reasonable, but airfare was out of the question. So, I decided to stick to the East Coast and, just for fun, looked to see if there was anything left on the Cape – my dream beach destination. I fully expected it also to be completely sold out. (Now, if like Mary Ann, you ask “which Cape?,” I will tell you what I told her. What other Cape is there? Cape Cod of course! Sorry, Massachusetts pride is as strong as NY Yankees pride!)
Anyway, I was surprised to see that there were still a lot of cottages listed as being available the week we have off. However, when I e-mailed the owners, most of the cottages were actually already booked. I spent many hours looking at these listings and even called on friends in Massachusetts to give me advice. Still, it looked like I was going to strike out again. I wasn’t sure quite what to do and I was acutely aware of time running out.
So, last night, when Mary Ann asked if I wanted to go to Adoration, I decided to take a break from the frustrating cottage search and said “sure, I’ll go.” It was still on my mind when I got to the church though, so I decided to ask God for help with the vacation planning. When I was in college, the Jesuits taught us to envision Jesus sitting next to us and just have a conversation with him about whatever was on our minds. So, although I almost hesitated to ask because it seemed kind of ridiculous that God would care about my vacation plans, I decided to tell ask Him for help. Just as I would tell a friend, I told him I didn’t know where to reserve or which house to reserve. I was concerned about many things and many details and I told him every one!
I woke up this morning and found in my e-mailbox an e-mail from the owner of my favorite cottage. She said it was available. And, not only was it available, but it had every single one of the things we wanted in a cottage – and more!
Then I called up my friend from college who has a family cottage on The Cape and told her where and when we could be there. She said, “No way!” She said that the cottage I had rented is just a few streets away from her family cottage. I thought that this was nice, but I knew that she would be working so I told her it was really too bad I wouldn’t get to see her. She said, “No! Our week at the Cape is always this weekend, but this year my cousins took my weekend and I was really mad!” Her new weekend happens to fall during the same week that we have reserved. We will be a few streets away and I will get to see her! And, on top of this, one of our other dear college friends, who now lives in Utah, will also be vacationing in the same town on the Cape the same week!
I could not have planned it better if I had tried! God really is “in the details” as my friend Mary Ann said. It still astounds me that He could really care about every little detail in our lives – but He really does. We just have to bring it to Him and ask for help. Every time I do this, I get results that are far better than any I could plan myself. As the old adage goes, “Let go and let God”…it works every time!
Rebecca C. Ruiz 