The number 13 – not unlucky for me

The number 13. Considered unlucky by some but not by me.

Thirteen years ago today I got together with a lovely man I had met a few weeks before…on Friday 13th.

Thirteen years on, we’re happily married and settling into life as parents to our beautiful little girl. (We got married in 2013 on the 13th of the month, just for good measure)

Some might say we’re lucky but I’d say there’s no such thing as luck.

It was not luck that led me to cross paths, 13 years ago, with the man I would go on to marry. It was not luck that has led him to put up with me ever since (although he’d be forgiven for muttering “just my luck” about that at times)

In the Bible Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 tells us, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’

That Bible quote from Jeremiah hangs on our nursery wall. I know that, like her brother in Heaven before her, God has plans for Charlotte’s life.

She will have free will to make her own life choices, but our all-knowing God already knows the choices she will make and has already lined up people and prospects to cross her path about which she will make the choices that ultimately shape her life.

It’s always been a challenging concept to get my head around – the balance between free will and determinism, and how it is that I’m free to make my own choices about what I do now but God has known the choices I’d make since before my life began.

Ultimately, though, the intricacies of that aren’t important. What is important is that I know God’s plan for my life is perfect, so much better than any plan I could come up with for myself, and I will continue to seek his guidance over which direction to take next.

For me, free will involves realising that I am not the best architect for my life and looking to the greatest architect to advise me on what and when to build, and what and when to knock down to shape my life to be the best it can.

That may mean facing tough things as well as easy things, bad times as well as good, and tough decisions along the way. But there is no bad luck.

Even in the toughest of circumstances that we’ve faced we have seen positive outcomes – our own growth as a couple and of the trust we have in God, and the impact our experiences have had on people around us and beyond.

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”

And Jeremiah 17:7 reminds us that, “…blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.”

Little did I know, just over 13 years ago, as I sat in a bar chatting to a man who’d gone to the same university as me, the adventures, joys and challenges we would go on to face together.

We look forward to seeing what adventures, joys and challenges Charlotte’s life will bring.

And we’ll continue to pray for her, but we won’t wish her luck.

Sarah Moore is the author of For the Love of Lentil, A journey of longing, loss and abundant grace, which tells the story of her experience of pregnancy and miscarriage. Copies of the book are available here.