Puzzles and Plans

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11, NLT)

The weather is changing here in Iowa. It is obvious that Fall is upon us. Last week, after several weeks of summer heat and sunshine, there dawned a day that promised to be cool and cloudy, with maybe even a little drizzle.

As Abby and I went for our walk that morning, I met another Workamper along the way. She asked if I had heard a weather report, and I relayed what I had seen on Weather.com just a few minutes before. To this she replied: "It sounds like a good day just to stay inside and work a puzzle or something."

I didn’t say anything, but my first thought was "I really wish I had so little to do that I had time to work a puzzle!" I don’t know about you but sometimes I really feel harried and harassed. With a to-do list that seems to get longer instead of shorter with each passing day, I haven’t worked a puzzle in years!

And then I thought again . . .

The main reason that I haven’t worked a puzzle in so long is that God has this plan for me. He has given me this mission to write my book, and this blog, and to teach His word in small group studies, and that’s why I don’t dare to take the time to do a puzzle. And I’m glad of it too, now that I think of it.

In the above passage of scripture Jeremiah says to the nation of Israel that although they are in captivity in Babylon, their current trouble is just temporary, and that He still has plans for them that are for good, and that He will (and in fact did) carry them out.

Many commentator "scholars" like to point out that this was addressed to the nation of Israel, and they sort of scoff at the idea that we would want to apply this to ourselves as individuals. I don’t know about you, but I believe in a God that knows and cares about each individual in His creation, and I don’t think it is a bit out of context to see a level of meaning in this verse at which we can hear the voice of God saying to each of us "I have plans for you, plans for good and not for disaster. I want to give you, my child, a future and a hope.

So God has given me a future. You don’t hear just an awful lot of people among us Seniors who talk much about the future, at least beyond the next six months. But the future that Christ has secured for us is a future for this life, first of all, and then the brightest of futures beyond.

He has given me a hope.

He has a plan for me, once again, not just for the eternity beyond, but a plan for this life and the days ahead.

And so, I don’t have time for that puzzle, and I praise His holy Name for that. So excuse me, I’ve got to get back to writing that book. Thanks for sharing this moment with me today.