Edmonton. The capital city of the Canadian prairie province of Alberta.

Also the northernmost of the province’s two primary cities…

Canada is generally known for its cold weather; however, the prairie provinces are especially known for their bitterly cold winters, and the farther north you go on the prairies, the lower the mercury dips. As such, Edmonton has all the right ingredients for being incredibly cold, and when my youngest son proposed to go to Edmonton for school, my only thought was, He’d better not expect me to visit in the winter!

As cold as the prairies are, they do get a few short weeks of summer, and that was when we made our Edmonton trips. We did make one trip to Edmonton at the end of April for our son’s graduation from Bible school. I will admit I was a bit surprised to see that no one was frozen to the ground. Nonetheless, even though the snow was gone, the ice sculptures in the park were still intact, and the early spring bulbs that were long gone in our home province of Ontario were only just starting to sprout… We’ll just say I was happy to return home! Even though I had never actually been there in the winter, I was often quoted as saying that Edmonton wasn’t fit for human habitation!

Then came Christmas 2021. After my mother-in-law passed away on Christmas day, 2020, my family didn’t want to celebrate Christmas in Ontario. The wounds were still too fresh, and to my horror, when my son invited us all to Edmonton for Christmas, my wife agreed! What was she thinking?! Didn’t she know humans couldn’t survive there in the winter???

The weather did exactly what I expected it to do. The mercury dropped to -40 the day we arrived and didn’t budge for the entire 10 days we were there. It was so cold that even the inside doorknobs were frosted over! Fortunately, my son has a good furnace, and I hunkered down for the entire 10 days. I only went out once for a very short walk. My wife bundled me up like a snowman, but the first step out the door, my glasses froze over, so I was literally blind until she finally took pity on me and let me go back inside. She said I’d only been out 10 minutes. I’m pretty sure she meant to say hours… “Now I have proof!” I told everyone. “Edmonton is not fit for human habitation!”

Yes, if you had asked me where I would never ever live, I would have immediately shouted out, “Edmonton!”

Well … Guess where I now live???

Let me give you a clue … It isn’t fit for human habitation!

Never say never. Yes, I should have heeded that advice. Now it’s too late…

Of course, I would never have imagined in my younger years that I would develop early-onset dementia, and by the age of 66, I would no longer be capable of making my own decisions. I would never have imagined that my wife would be in a place where she needed extended family around her. I would never have imagined that my older son would move to China and that in order to be near family, Edmonton was the only choice… And I don’t blame my wife. I understand her needs, and to be honest, if she had to move to Edmonton, I’m pretty thankful she took me along!

When it comes to human plans, the Bible is clear: We may make all the most beautiful plans in the world, but if they aren’t in accordance with God’s plans, they won’t ever come to fruition. Check out these verses: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” (Proverbs 16:9 NIV), “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21 NIV).

Rather than make all of our elaborate plans or boldly declaring things like, “I’ll NEVER live in Edmonton!”, we need to follow the advice of our Lord’s human brother: “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city…’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow… Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4:13-15 NIV)

No, I didn’t know what the future would hold, but fortunately for me, it is God’s purpose that prevails.

What plans are in your future? Be sure to submit them to the Lord, no matter what the potential outcome, ever knowing that wherever God wills you to be, He will provide for you there! You won’t starve, hey, you won’t even freeze to death! Not even in a place as uninhabitable as Edmonton, Alberta!

Inspired by Rob Chaffart
Founder, Answers2Prayer Ministries