An Unfolding Plan

Architects unroll blueprints. Writers indent thoughts into outlines and engineers pour over schematics.

There was always a plan.

God had one, too. The problem is no one seemed to notice.

The moment the fruit juice ran down the chins of Adam and Eve, God had a plan. He knew it, scoped it out, drew the blueprints before the first star spun in the heavens.

But to a human mind, it did not make sense. The creator of the universe, able to create unique symmetrical snowflakes, made a plan that no one could envision.

It seemed so unordered and random.

It closed the ramp to an ark as a flood wiped out most of mankind. Just a single family remained. Just one. What can a family do?

Then, God challenges a man to leave home to a place God would show him. He had no land but grasped a promise. Under a blanket of stars, God revealed a puzzle piece of his plan. He and his wife would have a son who would become a great nation. Out of that nation, the world would receive a blessing no one could conceive.

But no baby’s cry was heard and the years squeezed life-bearing ability from a womb.

Years passed and finally, a son was born to a couple too old to have a child. That child and then his child would receive the same promise. But it was no clearer than it was three generations earlier.

Twelve sons would become the nation. Yet, their stubbornness did not betray any of God’s handiwork. He gave them a law they broke with abandon. God would punish and forgive. It was repeat and rebel and repeat again.

But a funnel started to form.

A king would come along with the prophets. A few hints got dropped here and there. A kingdom that would last forever. Strange sayings such a sprout of a root or a little town becoming preeminent.

Mighty nations smashed this people and its glory, reducing them to refugees. It seemed lost. How could this be God’s plan?

It was always hazy but then God fell silent for four centuries. Was all this nothing more than talk? Plan? What plan?

Moses’ words echoed:

“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;” (Numbers 24:17, ESV)

Not now.

But the day came when divinity wriggled into a pink package of human flesh. John would say that the “word became flesh.” Paul would say it was God emptying himself, taking the form of a servant.

In the fullness of time, Jesus came, born…

The plan wrapped up who we were, who we are, and who we hope to become, a plan born in a cave in the town called the House of Bread. His death and resurrection broke the back of despair.

So in a season that features children pageants with a baby doll, don’t forget the plan. It was a plan for you and me.

God always had a plan, and God still does for you.