It seems like yesterday when I was saying goodbye to classmates and celebrating the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer. My most memorable goodbye to the school year occurred in kindergarten. Although I grew up with an elementary school directly across the street from my home, the children in my neighborhood were bussed to the other side of town. We never really got a clear understanding of why, but my guess is that it had something to do with desegregation.

The last day of school that kindergarten year we boarded the bus just like any other day and headed home. Everything was going great until the bus driver took an unexpected detour. My exposure to the city I grew up in to that point was limited but by the end of the school year I had memorized the way home; so much so that in my mind I had come to believe that it was the only way. So, when the bus driver detoured that day, I promise you my whole life…all five years of it…passed before my eyes.

He made turn after turn and with each one I became more and more convinced that I would never make it home. At every single stop he made I fought the urge to jump out of that bus and find my way home on my own. Suddenly, things started to look a little familiar…and I became hopeful. He made one more right turn and there standing on the right side of the street was my mother waiting patiently at the bus stop like she had done every day that year. When I got off the bus, I started telling her how worried I was because the bus driver didn’t take the “right way”. She listened patiently and when I was done, I remember her smiling, chuckling and softly saying, “Baby, he knows the way” …

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Do you ever find yourself wondering if He has you headed in the right direction? Do you ever get discouraged because the bus He has you on is taking a way that looks nothing like the way you thought you should be going? The next time you find yourself in this type of a situation, fight the urge to jump off at the next stop; stay on and ride the bus because eventually, He will get you to the right destination.

It might not look like you thought it would, might not look anything like it did all those other times but rest assured…Baby…He knows the way!