Let’s start with a picture we can all see. Engineers sometimes aim a small spacecraft at a huge planet—not to land there, but to swing around it. That move is called a gravity assist. On paper it looks like a stall, a pointless loop. But that loop gives the craft the speed and direction it could never make on its own. What looks like delay is design. The “detour” is how the mission goes farther with the fuel it has.

We know this feeling in our own stories. We walk through waiting rooms, closed doors, and side paths we never planned. We pray and it seems quiet. We work hard and the road bends away from the goal. Still, in God’s hands, these turns are not wasted. They become the very places where grace gives us lift we could not find alone.

Mark tells us Jesus left Tyre, went “through Sidon,” and then down toward the Sea of Galilee, into the Decapolis. That was the long way. Unknown to everyone watching, what looked like a waste of time was the path that set Him up to meet a man in pain—a man who could not hear and could barely speak. What looked meaningless was mercy in motion. Christ took that long path, and at the right moment, His steps crossed the steps of someone who needed Him.

This is often how God works with us. We think the shortest road is the best road. We want straight lines and quick answers. But love is not in a hurry; love is careful and on time. Delays can be part of the blessing. Detours can be how God places us where hope is needed—sometimes for our own healing, sometimes so we can carry hope to someone else.

So let us shift our hearts a little. Instead of asking, “How fast are we getting there?” let us ask, “How close are we staying to Jesus while we travel?” Let us keep praying, even when the way winds. Let us treat interruptions as possible invitations. Let us see closed doors as new directions, not final verdicts. Let us believe that today’s slow path may be setting tomorrow’s meeting with grace.

And let us take heart. With Christ, no mile is wasted. What looks like a detour can be the very route where healing meets us. In time we will be able to say—by faith now, and by sight later—He has done all things well, even when the way there did not make sense at first.