Happy Beginning of Thanksgiving Week.  Here’s another little piece of Thanksgiving for the Dad Man.  Don’t worry–there’s plenty of stuff left in the book for you to discover on your own!

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails. (Proverbs 19:21)

Heading off across the ocean to a new world falls cleanly into the category, “Easier said than done.”  It takes money, experience, and business savvy to put together a venture of this kind—tools which our Separatist friends did not have.  They formed partnerships, found investors, and got cheated.  They learned about bureaucracies and red tape and silly little bean counters who have no sense of adventure and no thirst for freedom and–

Well, they finally got settled on their ships, and—

Yeah, ships—plural.  You do know that they started with two ships, right?  Sure, they had the Mayflower, but they also had the Speedwell, a beautiful, sleek little ship that kept trying to sink.  Twice they left for America; twice they had to return because the Speedwell was leaking.  Finally, they decided to ditch the little ship, cram everyone they could aboard the Mayflower, and get while the getting was good.

They headed out for good in September of 1620—about six weeks behind schedule.  This was just late enough in the year to put the little ship, her 102 passengers, and her twenty-six crew members into storm season.  Battling storm after storm, Mayflower averaged less than two miles per hour.  Her destination was the Hudson River, in modern-day New York, but the weather pushed her well north of that, to a place we call Cape Cod.  There, in November of 1620, the little ship found shelter.

Something to chew on:  Beloved, the Pilgrims had a careful, well-laid plan…that went kablooie.  And yet, God was there.  He brought them to safe harbor, though it was not the harbor they had expected.  Any echos in your own life?