I woke up early today and prepared myself for the graduation church service at 10:00 this morning. Staying with friends who are 35 minutes away, I found myself ready early and decided to leave. At 8:40 am I found myself on the road. Arrival time – 9:20. I had moseyed along and looked forward to my pick of parking spaces. Pulling into the parking lot of the church I noticed few cars were already there. Hmmm … the gymnasium doesn’t look like I remember. Could I have been gone from Seattle THAT long?
I sat and watched as other cars pulled up, parked and entered the church. The people walking into the “gymnasium” carried food items. That’s strange, I thought. I didn’t think there was a potluck today. I continued waiting … and waiting.
Soon I decided that I better ask someone about what these strange turn of events meant. A woman with a friendly smile greeted people so I walked up and asked “Can you tell me where the PSAA gym is?” Much to my chagrin she said “You’re about a mile out of the way.”
Uh — what? Sure enough, the school is not on church grounds. How could I have forgotten that? Back in the car, I headed to my destination feeling good that I had come early enough to still find empty parking spaces. I saw what looked like the gym but fences sealed off the area so I figured that I must be in the wrong place. I continued driving. No — this is not right I told myself.
I headed back and saw the sign – Puget Sound Adventist Academy. With glee, I pulled into the same place that had the fences sealing off the parking lot. I was so pleased with myself. I was still early enough to get a good parking spot. One other car sat in the parking lot but no one was in it. That made two of us – early birds.
Wondering why no one was here, especially since the family I came to visit normally arrives early, I looked at the program to see what the service would be like. Looks nice, I thought. Then I looked up at the top to see that the service started at 11 a.m.
I knew when I woke up this morning that I was a little groggy yet anxious to get the day going. A little too anxious.
Isn’t that how life is sometimes? We’re so quick to move and fail to check our plans and destinations. In this case, no harm was done. If the situation were different and I would have been late instead of early …
So — I sit at a Starbucks biding my time. I surely hope the day does not get any stranger than this.