A humid morning on the lake

Not too hot yet

But the air is heavy with moisture

I am out later than usual

There are more people out and about

A fisherman in his boat

A man paddling by in a kayak with his dog

Offering a friendly wave

I think most people think I am fishing off the dock

That is what most people do from docks I suppose

But I am fishing for ideas

With paper and pen

I am not in a hurry to find something to write about

It will come when it comes

I look down and notice the nails in the planks of the dock

Covered with stain and waterproofing

They look like scars in the wood

Each one taking on a different shape and depth

The weathered wood shows deep grooves in places

Yet seems study enough for the job

It may yet be a while before it needs replacing

The dock is longer this year

The workers who placed the boat lift

Placed it a little too deep in the water

Necessitating more planks

I wonder where the extra pieces came from

One of them is gray

Clearly not from the original batch of planking

David says they washed up on the beach

At two different times

Impossible to get them back to their owners

The lake, even being the smallest of the finger lakes,

Is quite large

And people lose pieces of their deck all the time

So it was saved for a summer just like this one

When the dock would need extra planking

Pieces that were exactly the right size and length for the current need

And it makes me think of the times in my own life

God prepared ahead of time

What I would need

We don’t always know why

That piece of planking

Has washed up on our shore

But we know one day we will need it

When the deeper waters come

Sometimes it is a small loss

That prepares us for bigger losses

Or an insight gained through hard experience

Something we will need

When it has come time to change

And we fear we do not have what it takes to change

And realize we do

Because we have done it before

One of the worst lies of the enemy

Is convincing us we cannot change

That no one can

That what we are, we will always be

But God

It is true than once sitting it is easier to sit

Newton’s First Law of Motion at work

But sitting is temporary

Until I stand

And small changes help me see

That maybe big ones are possible too

God is preparing me even now

Sitting on this dock

For whatever hard things come this year

For there are always hard things

My life, like the planking on this dock

Is pock marked with scars

But it is also waterproofed

Places where God has provided the planking

As I head out into deeper and deeper water

The waves passing underneath

Not rocking, as I would be in the boat.

But firmly rooted

In the truth of God’s Word

In the beauty of his goodness

And the security of his love