I don’t always like change. Sometimes I really don’t like change. It can feel disappointing and disorienting, especially when I already had a plan in my head for how something was supposed to go. There is something uncomfortable about suddenly finding yourself somewhere you didn’t intend to be, wondering what you’re supposed to do now. But this Halloween, a very last minute change quite literally put me in the right place at the right time.

I’ll be honest, Halloween isn’t really my favorite holiday. Kids love it, though, and I absolutely love that our church uses the night as an opportunity to love families in our community BIG. I had already planned where I was going to serve and what the evening would look like. Then my husband needed to go help one of our adult kids with a minor emergency, and suddenly my plans changed. For a minute, I genuinely felt like I didn’t have a spot anymore.

Instead, I ended up in a neighborhood I had never been in before, walking around with our daughter and one of her friends who offered for us to walk with them. It wasn’t where I had planned to serve. It wasn’t where I thought I would spend my evening. I was simply adjusting to the change and trying to make the best of it when something happened that felt like one of those tiny miracles you could easily miss if you weren’t paying attention.

There, in this completely different neighborhood, were people from our church setting up to serve families. They had hot dogs, a bounce castle, a prayer tent, candy and all these simple ways of saying to a neighborhood, We are here. We love you. You matter. I started looking around to see if I recognized anyone, and then I saw Dedra. She works with me, and seeing a familiar face immediately made me feel like maybe I wasn’t quite as out of place as I had thought. As a former foster kid, I’m use to feeling that way and I felt remnants of my own past creeping in as I felt for a moment “what if they didn’t need or want me there”? But I whispered “that’s a lie, you are wanted, God always makes a way and space for you”!

I walked over and told her that my serving plans had changed and asked if there was anywhere I could help while my daughter walked around with her friend. Y’all, if you know me, you know at least two things about me, I love kids, and I LOVE photography. So when they told me they had this little photo booth area that needed someone to run it, I almost couldn’t believe it. Apparently, people hadn’t really used it much the year before, so they hadn’t planned to have anyone stationed there.

A PHOTOBOOTH.

You mean to tell me that my plans changed, I ended up in a neighborhood I had never planned to be in, happened to find people I knew WEARING THE SAME SHIRTS, asked if they needed help, and the empty spot just happened to involve photography? COME ON. 😭 You can call that coincidence if you want, but I just don’t think I can.

I am still learning about the depth of God’s love for me. I’m still learning that He notices the little things, even the things I don’t think are important enough to ask Him about. In that moment, I realized I had been worried because I thought I had lost my place to serve, but God already knew there was a place for me. I just didn’t know about it yet.

So I started taking pictures, and I absolutely loved it. One of my favorite parts was making moms get into pictures with their babies because moms are so often the ones behind the camera. We document everyone else’s lives and somehow disappear from the evidence that we were there too. Grandmas too! So I got to say, “Nope, Mama. Get in there.” I got to capture families laughing and children being silly. I loved being beside Dedra and her family, and I loved knowing my daughter had found a friend and was getting to enjoy being a kid in a place where I knew she was safe.

But then the evening became about something much deeper than photographs.

I met a sweet woman who began sharing her story with me. She told me she had lost her husband and her son and that she was having a really hard time. We stood there together, and I cried with her. I prayed with her. I wanted her to know that God had not forgotten her. I wanted her to know that she was seen and loved and that her grief mattered. Out of all the people who could have been standing in that neighborhood on that particular night, somehow our paths crossed.

Somewhere in the middle of telling this woman that God saw her, I realized that He had just done the exact same thing for me.

I had walked into that neighborhood feeling displaced by a change of plans. She walked into that space carrying grief. Somehow God met both of us there. My daughter found a friend and a safe place to enjoy her evening. I found a photobooth and families who needed someone to capture them ALL together. A grieving woman found someone available to stand with her and hear her story, cry with her and pray. I found another reminder that God sees me too.

There is something wild and beautiful about helping someone else feel seen while simultaneously realizing how deeply you have just been seen by God.

I think sometimes we assume God’s provision will look like Him putting our original plan back together. We want the thing that changed to change back. We want the interruption fixed, the disappointment resolved or the path returned to what we expected. But maybe sometimes His provision looks different. Maybe sometimes He has something waiting for us inside the change.

I’m learning not to automatically assume that a change of plans means something has gone wrong. Maybe sometimes change is redirection. Maybe the interruption is actually an invitation. Maybe the place we didn’t intend to be is exactly where someone needs what we carry. Also, maybe God occasionally allows us to help another person feel seen at the exact moment we desperately need the reminder that we are seen too.

Change is still hard for me. I still like knowing the plan. I still get disappointed when things don’t happen the way I pictured them. But I think I’m learning to look around when they don’t.

Because there just might be a little photo booth sitting in a neighborhood I never planned to visit, a daughter happily walking with a friend, a grieving woman who needs someone to hear her story, and a God who already knew exactly where I would be needed.

I thought my plans had changed. Maybe God was simply showing me that He had a place for me all along.

Thank you Deidra to you and your precious family for welcoming me! Beltway Park Church

Summer thank you for inviting my girl to walk with your girl! She even changed her costume last minute to something DARK that I didn’t love to a bright dress and a blonde wig like a glamour girl. IYKYK

Grateful!