Far Over and Above
Earlier this year I received a phone call from my brother whom we had lost contact with for almost a decade. Shortly after that I had a phone conversation with a little human who called me ‘aunti’. I have a number of titles I go by, but I found myself falling deeply in love with how this little voice put ‘aunti’ before my name. Ever since I’ve been praying for a chance to go meet her.
God answered my prayers. This week I drove down to Durban to go meet my niece Luyanda and it was way more than I bargained for. I had a mental image of how I wanted this trip to go. Firstly, it was supposed to be a girls trip with my younger sisters (that dad was sponsoring). But just 8 hours before we left, father decided he was coming along, promising not to be an inconvenience. I cannot relate with his spontaneity as I plan everything to the dot, even my trips to town. So the perfectionist in me wanted to complain because this is not how ‘we’ planned it.
Time was ignored because, well, my father and time have never been friends. Then we had a two-hour delay on the road due to an accident that occurred earlier that morning. I was glad for his presence ‘cause I would have felt pretty vulnerable and clueless in all that people were doing in response to having to wait. I was also glad he came along when they gave us issues with checking in and when we ate together because I could simply pass the food bill to him.
We met seven-year-old Lu, a spitting image of her father, and my brother, an even more a spitting image of our father. She is a ball of energy, not too talkative but she moves faster than lightning. My biggest fear while shopping with her at the mall was that I’d lose her in the crowd since she wouldn’t let me hold her hand for long, but she’s as smart as she is fast. All I had to do to anchor her was walk into CUM books and point her to children’s books. But even so, it was just fifteen minutes before she needed to go to the bathroom, again.
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| Aunti Aphelele walking Lu to the bathroom |
The next day we drove out with her to dad’s hometown where he was staying to go meet him and the rest of the family there. Lucky enough all three of her grandads were present, bringing much confusion to her little brain as to who was her ‘real’ grandad. Her father later on joined us and it turned into an unplanned family reunion. That’s what I was most grateful for in things not going as I planned, because this trip served more than just my desire to meet my niece but through it our family was able to come together in a way it hadn’t been able to since my grandmother passed more than thirteen years ago. It was like a dream listening to my brother talking with dad and everyone jumping in and out of the conversation while Lu rested on my lap.
Late into the night, I led my family in prayer. Sure our visit had unravelled a few things that I realized would be challenges along the way but my heart was hopeful in God who can handle anything. Never in my life have I been so glad for things not going my way, because in them not doing so, they went God’s way, which was so much better than my way anyway. I’ve captured memories I’ll treasure forever and I’ve learnt a lesson I will live by: It’s okay when things don’t go according to plan, God has a bigger, underlying plan, and as Job put it, no plan of God’s can be thwarted.
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