That wasn't in the script!

It is that moment that every girl dreams of...the moment when a man gets down on one knee and pops the "big question."
We have all seen it done different ways, sometimes in a public setting, other times in a private setting.
But any way that it is done, we would all admit that the best ones are the ones that have taken great thought and effort. And I believe the one that I witnessed last night, was def. up there on the list of the best proposals! You have seen it on tv, but how amazing is it to see it and really be apart of it in real life! Last night was def. a night of firsts!

It all started last spring. I was in a class known as Drama in ministry. And for the final assignment we had two options. We could either make puppets to be presented in the last day of class, or write a children's program. And since I had already told my mom that I would direct the Christmas play for 2010, I thought "why not kill two birds with one stone." And so I decided of course to write a Christmas play.

And I remembered back to when I was twelve and starred in a Christmas play that was written based on a Christmas book ( "The legend of the candy cane"). And so I decided to search for a children's Christmas book that I could turn into a play, and I found "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey."
Of course I changed the name to "The Christmas Miracle of Jacob Toomey."

 To give you the jist of this neat story  I like to refer to it as a "Beauty and the Beast" story. It is about an atheistic widower (Jacob Toomey), who is a carpenter, who lost his wife and child and after that became very cold towards everyone. But it does not stop there, a certain widow lady and her son ask this carpenter to make them a nativity set to replace the one that they lost in a house fire that also killed their husband/father, and children/siblings. He relunctantly agrees, and slowly but surely the heart of this man softens. The little boy (Christopher) has a burden for Mr. Toomey to get saved,  and faithfully prays for him and shares Christ whenever the opportunity arises.
Towards the end of the story Mr. Toomey, accepts Christ. And falls in love with Rachel Thompson (The widow/ Christopher's mom).

So as you can imagine as I wrote the play, people were already forming in my mind for these main parts.
I knew that I wanted my brother Caleb to play Christopher, and then I wanted Caleb Gates (sister's boyfriend...now fiance) to play Mr. Toomey and Krista to play Widow Thompson, since they were dating it would make it more realistic then if I were to have say Joseph (brother) play Mr. Toomey and Krista (sister) play the widow. Anyways so I asked them if they would  as I was writing it and they all agreed that they would play the main roles.

And so all spring...and summer...and fall, I was busying myself off and on, fixing grammatical errors, and getting props together. And then began the practices with all the characters. Now besides the main characters (Caleb, Krista, and Caleb) I had at least twelve extra actors/actresses, who were the towns people at the opening scene and ending scene and also singing songs during the scene changes.

So at first everything went well, practices went as well as they could, we had to work without Caleb Gates because he was in Kentucky so that was a little difficult, but for the most part things really started to come together. I mean there were those small "curve balls" such as we did not have proper lighting, but a huge thankyou to my boyfriend Thomas, for supplying us with a curtain. And we did not have all the props that we needed, but again a huge thanks to Thomas for gettting permission from the Faith drama department to borrow some of their props. So while we had these "minor kinks", they all seemed to be worked through and handled well. But it all came to a crash the night before the play. 


So sometimes things don't go exactly as you plan. You can plan and ready yourself as much as you want, but those "curve balls" are always thrown, there is always a surprise around the next bend, and those "kinks in the schedule" always seem to form, sometimes slowly over time, sometimes very quickly.

And for many out there in the world, these "mishaps" these "curveballs" or "Kinks in the schedule" may just seem like coincidence, or worse yet they may just see them as things that just unfortuantely happen with no rhyme or reason. How thankful I am that I know at least a little more than they! I know that "yes" these things are out of my control, but rather they are in the very hands of the One who created me and knows the beginning and the end! The One who loves me and knows what is best for me and only does those things that are for my very good (Romans 8:28).

How thankful I am that I am able to entrust these problems that arise to my Father in heaven. But even though I can do this, I don't always choose to trust Him. You see God has written a script of my life. He has created me, and secondly He has redeemed me (salvation through His son Jesus Christ). And since He has created me and since I have accepted Christ, my life  is under a new Director, and as such He can see ahead, all He gives me is the line and scene that I am on now. I can see what lines I have already said, scenes I have already past, and I can see the lines and scenes that I am taking apart of right now, but I cannot see what is coming...what scenes He has planned ahead.

And sometimes I, as the actor, follow easily, sometimes I am fully surrendered to His script, following His script to a T. But sometimes even though I "follow" it, I still have my own ideas about where my story, the play of my life is going. And when it does not go as I had thought I am tempted to doubt God.
 I am often tempted when things go wrong, to think "why, why would God do this?" and this was the boat I was in this past saturday evening. 

I have been praying for snow since October. And we got a little here and there. But I did not know that the answer to my prayer...would actually come when I would not really want it. But then again it is not about me!
Saturday night we started to really get pelted with the beautiful white stuff, but I was not as glad for it as I had always been, because it was coming at seemingly the wrong time. But who ever said that I was the script writer? Yeah I may write a script for the Christmas program, I may have been the director, but what makes me think that it could possibly go any farther than that? It is so weird because even though God does give us positions of leadership, we still ultimately answer to Him! This is what He told Pilate, when Pilate got arrogant and tried to usurp the power of the Alpha and Omega, and when you put it that way how absurd!
How absurd to think that I little Bethy should control what happens!

John 19:10-11
"Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”
Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above."

You see even though He allows us to serve in  leadership positions, we ultimately still answer to Him! And I think that these "kinks in the schedule" were to teach me that God is ultimately in control and that even though I may  "plan" things, my plans are still written in pencil, and God holds the eraser!

Saturday night, the blizzard came, and thus I thought for sure "the play is over" it won't happen! It can't. Then on top of that Caleb, my brother and the main character (the little boy Christopher) got the flu.  And so then I thought for sure that it was over. So as you can imagine, after a years worth of work, I was upset and in inner turmoil saturday night, worried and just at a loss. Thinking "why would God do this? Why would He be trying to hinder us from serving Him and bringing glory to His name through this play."

But God allows these things because He wants to be first and wants to be trusted. We even as humans want and desire to be trusted by others, and how much more so would the  most trustworhty Creator, the One who gave up everything for us so that He could have a relationship with us. Why would He not want to to be trusted by those whom He has redeemed?

He was trying to get the attention of a certain little controlling Bethy, who needed to turn her heart and the play itself fully to Him, and acknowledge that He has total power and control.

The following morning I was in Psalm 103, and read about God's loving-kindness and mercy, and was reminded that even though it seemed that these things were bad, that God is merciful and loving and kind and He def. would never do anything that would not be acutally better for me. And so I purposed to trust Him.

Turns out that the snow cleared off by Sunday evening and Caleb got better, well enought to go on. And Sunday night we had a few more "issues" ( mom getting sick, and breanna as well.) to work through and the play had some glitches. But ultimately it went well.
And God worked it out for good! And I would never have it anyother way!

But at the end, when we were finished and the curtains were pulled, my dad began talking about the play and making apllication to the hearers lives. And behind the curtains the entire cast was high fiving and pounding it with each other, and breathing sighs of relief, when suddenly Caleb Gates said that we needed to pull back
the curtain, and that all of the cast needed to get off the stage and to the sides.

So we scrambled off the sides quickly as my dad finished up with the invitation, then the curtains were pulled back. And my dad asked for all the stars and workers to come up. So we all went up and had a curtain call.  And I was thinking "alright, don't really like this but whatever." Then another curve ball. Caleb dismissed everyone again from the stage, but asked me to stay, and of course Krista was still up there. So then they handed me a gift card for running the play. and again I was like "alright, I don't really like this but whatever."
And then came the FINALE!

Now I may have written this play, but NEVER, NEVER could I have come up with such a great last scene. As I stepped down off the stage to sit with my dad, Caleb Gates began saying lines that I never wrote, lines that he had been forming out of the sincerity of his heart, lines that only God could write and stick in his heart over a period of time. Lines that were not in my play script, but were in God's.

He told Krista that this play that they had acted in indicated that the couple at the end got married, and that he wanted it to be more than acting he wanted to make it "real", and a bunch of other sweetness that I can't remember at the moment, but fortunately the whole thing was taped, so that we will never forget!
 Then he pulled a ring from his pocket and got down on his knee, and right there on the set of the Christmas play in front of our church, he proposed! It was a surreal moment! I mean we all knew that it was coming, but never could have imagined that it would happen like this!


Many tears were shed, amongst the actors/actresses, stage crew, and audience. It was a very beautiful and picturesque moment!

God is so good!  He is the best Director of the script of our lives because He knows the beginning and the End and controls it! So why not allow Him to control and write your story? Your story of love for Him and your journey to Him!

It is well worth it to trust the Only One worthy of your trust!