A sincere and beautiful young woman dedicated herself to go as a missionary to India. Before she could leave, her mother had an accident. The journey to India had to be postponed, and for three years the devoted girl stayed and cared for her mother.
Before the mother died, she asked her daughter to visit an older daughter in the Far West. The young woman decided that she would keep her mother's request before sailing for India. She went West and there found her sister dying of a lingering illness. There was no one else available to take proper care of the sister and her children. Again her plans were changed. She stayed in the West until her sister died. Again, she felt free to plan to sail for India. Suddenly, the sister's husband died, leaving five little children, orphans, with no one to care for them.
The young woman wrote to a friend: "I can no longer plan to go to India. My mission is to stay in this lonely household and take care of these five little children."
The young woman was greatly disappointed; but she was cheerful as she set herself, with loving devotion, to a mother's task. Fifteen years she devoted herself to her sister's children. In her forty-fifth year, God showed her why He had held her back from India. In that year, she laid her hand in blessing on the heads of three of the young people whom she had mothered. They were sailing as missionaries to India. Her broken plan had been replaced by a larger and better one which God had for her life! She could truthfully say, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God."
Man proposes, but God disposes. Dear Christian, longing for a wider field of service to the Lord, take heart. Your disappointment may be His appointment to a service more complete, more suited to Himself. He keeps the feet of His saints, and often uses circumstances to point the way.