The morning started off well. My schedule was tight, but I felt prepared and productive. All my ducks were swimming happily in a row as I shut the front door and headed to my car, confident of my ability to accomplish everything on my to-do list.
Until I realized my keys were still on the table. Locked inside the house. Forget about a nice neat row. My ducks were now flapping and quacking all over the place.
A poet once said, “the best laid plans oft go awry.” And to that, I say— Ya think?
I would be tempted to blame the truth of those words on our current culture, except for the fact that this famous line of poetry was penned over two hundred years ago.
Was there ever a time when life was less chaotic? How about over two thousand years ago? Was it easier for people to keep their ducks in a row in ancient times?
A quick read of the 31st chapter of Proverbs might lead us to believe it was. In this passage of scripture, we meet a woman with the straightest row of ducks you’ve ever seen. She is clothed with strength and dignity and can laugh at the days to come. (Proverbs 31:25)
This annoying dear lady doesn’t have a thing to worry about. No wonder she can laugh at the future, she has everything under control.
There is a slight problem with this interpretation, however. It simply doesn’t ring true. Experience teaches that, organized or not, none of us knows what the future will bring. All we can say with confidence is that circumstances tend to waddle off in unexpected directions. I know this— I teach kindergarten.
And in case life hasn’t given us enough reminders, scripture spells it out for us. James 4:14 says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?”
The reason the woman from Proverbs 31 can laugh at the future is clearly not because she is sure her plans will succeed.
So what is the reason? Well, she is clothed in strength and dignity. That means strength and dignity don’t come from inside her. Verse 30 tells us she is a woman who fears the Lord. Her strength and dignity come from him. And because he is in control, she is free to laugh and not worry about the future.
So are we. It’s easy to forget this, of course, when we’re in the middle of a mess. To help me remember, I often think of a story my dad used to tell from his school days about a time when his plans did not work out. He included it in a book of memories he wrote for our family.
Once when I was in high school, a few of us decided we would go fishing on April Fool’s Day. I don’t know how many, four, five or six. Anyway, while we were fishing, the biology class came by on a field trip. We left running, but not soon enough. We were recognized and had to stay after school each afternoon until we had made up every class we missed. I wrote a poem that I still remember. It was published in the school paper. It was several verses long, but I remember only the first one.
We went fishing on April Fool’s Day
Soon we found we could not stay
Mr. Riddick was hot on our track
We threw down our poles and balled the jack (i.e., high-tailed it out of there)
If your ducks are misbehaving, here’s a bit of good news— there’s an excellent chance you will not get a call today from a school administrator informing you that your child skipped class to go fishing.
There is also an excellent chance, however, that something else unexpected will happen and your plans, like my dad’s, will suddenly go awry. Mine, too.
And while we may not end up running from the biology teacher (although that would be an interesting story) we probably will end up running trying to keep up with life.
At those times, when our to-do list is hot on our track and our plans are abandoned like my dad’s fishing pole, we can make the same choice as our friend from Proverbs and my own sweet daddy. We can laugh. With our keys locked in the house and our ducks out of control, we can erase the to-do list and write a poem instead.
Who knows, future generations might read it one day and laugh too. That sort of thing really can happen, you know.
I hope it just did.