Once upon a time, back in the day, "when I was a kid"... use all the verbal equivalents of the good old days and drop a pin in the timeline of my life. I'm officially that age when there are good "old" days upon which to reminisce. Yes, I walked to school. No, I didn't walk up hill both ways.
The good old days center around the church for me. I started serving at 14 by keeping the nursery on Wednesday nights, then playing piano for services, all anticipating the ultimate... turning 16 when deemed old enough to join the choir.
Church music was obviously different then. No fog machines, no orchestras or even background tracks yet. (Background tracks are the church version of karaoke without alcohol.) No, it was just a singer and a pianist or piano with organ and choir. I love modern church music, but I also loved that we really leaned into the full scope of "songs, and hymns and spiritual songs." Every service the choir opened the service with a rousing chorus meant to get everyone on hyped for what was about to happen. There was congregational singing out of a book (where my mom taught me how to read notes and sing harmony). Another choir song and at last "special music" right before the message to prepare everyone's hearts for the hearing of the Word. The musical version of dimming the lights for the main event, if you will. For a family of gifts musicians and singers, it was an opportunity to use your gift and minister to the church family.
My mom was part of several music groups, and often a soloist right before the message. One particular Sunday, she was the soloist before the message and had worked on a song called "Consider the Lilies". It suited her alto voice perfectly and would have been a comforting encouragement to a church family currently looking for a pastor. Would have been...
It was a Saturday night, the chores were all done, laundry put away, tacos belly-fied, and the family began the usual Sunday prep. Dad studying a lesson or polishing his shoes, girls doing their nails, and Mom getting her solo ready. But we couldn't find the sheet music anywhere. She'd worked on it all week memorizing the lyrics, but now at eight o'clock on a Saturday night the music was nowhere to be found. We had a small and very tidy house so there weren't many places the small spiralbound music book could hide but hide it did. Very well.
Eventually Mom grabbed a different book and prepared a different solo which was nice, but we were so disappointed she couldn't bring the song "Consider the Lilies" to our church family to remind them that God was in control of our pastoral search.
We were so disappointed until we got to church the next morning.
When we got home from church without even looking for it, we found the lost music book in a most obvious place. The Lord had hidden it in plain sight.
Here's the truth - God is the God of our inconveniences, of all our disrupted plans, of every pivot and or drop back and punt moment of our lives. Don't despise them. Don't let them stress you out. The extra five minutes changing your blouse because you dropped coffee on it, might have kept you out of a serious accident. That lost item you have to replace likely put you in contact with someone God wanted you to encourage. The car that hit you on your way home was driven by someone who needed you to pray for them because there are no real accidents. And sometimes a lost music book sets up the right message by the right pastor for the church and saves you mom some serious embarrassment.
Consider the Lilies (or the Lilleys) and know that God is in control.