Predictability - what we all want. Or not.

My childhood years were lived according to a daily routine that never varied.

6am:        Wake up to the sound of the church bells on the radio.  Get dressed.
6:30am:   Go next door to grandparents' house for early morning tea.
10am:      Morning tea with grandparents.
3pm:       Afternoon tea with grandparents.
4.45pm  Open the gates for Dad who would drive through within minutes.
6-7pm:   Dinner with family
7-8pm:   TV show as a family.
8pm:       Bedtime
8:30pm:  Lights out.  Look out bedroom window and watch grandparents' light go out, at the same time every night.

Sundays we would change the sheets on our beds and turn the mattresses.  Mondays and Thursdays were wash days.  Saturdays we would go into town as a family, have lunch at Barbers' tea lounge, George was always our waiter.  He knew my order without having to ask - steak and kidney pie and fanta orange to wash it down!

There was a certain comfort in knowing that every day was going to be the same as the day before.  And we took measures to ensure that nothing unforeseen would crop up and disrupt that routine.  We seldom had people over, never an overnight guest.  Nice and safe and predictable. 

So how is it that my life now is as unpredictable and changeable as it is possible to be?  I never know what time a meal will be, the sheets stay on the bed until they can't stand being with themselves any longer and get up in protest and walk to the washing machine; I have lived in five different countries and speak three languages; if you ask me what I am going to do on any given day, the answer will be "Whatever the wind (and the Lord!) brings my way!"

True, sometimes I long for that sweet monotony.  That sameness.  But usually if I ignore it long enough, that longing goes away. 

If I could choose predictability - or not - what would I choose?  It seems that the Lord is not a lover of it Himself.   He seems to prefer the unknowability of life.  One writer spoke of Jesus' "maddening unpredicability"! He knows the beginning from the end - and He generally keeps it to Himself.  He thrives in the "Gotcha!" moments of our lives. That is when we are thrown off balance and have to deal with the unexpected; that is when we need Him more; that is when He can do His best work.

I subconsciously made seven "I will never" statements at various times in my life.   Here they are:
1.   I will never live in a big city.  (I lived in Harare, then Johannesburg which was 50 times bigger, then Dakar.  The Paris!!)
2.   I will never work with computers.  First job?  Computer programmer. Spent four years in the programming world.  Computer programming, that is.
3.   I will never go to university.  I spent 10 years on Wits University campus.  Ten years!!
4.   I will never leave my beloved Africa.  I have lived overseas for the past 18 years.
5.   I will never live in Europe in general, France in particular.  Lived in France ten years.  Ten years!!
6.   I will never get these stupid French verbs.  I am dropping it and taking Afrikaans instead.  Spoke French (badly enough) for 16 years.
7.   I will never live in a snowy place.  Colorado, here we come!

So I guess God wants me to learn who is really in control!!