Be A Planner, For Heaven's Sake
[Note: This post was originally posted May 6, 2020 on a previous blog of mine]
If I’ve heard this once, I’ve heard this a million times: Grace, you’re such a good planner!
Oftentimes, I take pleasure in this compliment if I’m being completely honest. Who wouldn’t? Planning takes time and effort, no matter what it is you’re planning for.
But I have a secret: I love planning. And that’s what makes my acceptance of the above compliment so—for lack of the right word—wrong. Sure, planning takes time and effort on my part, but I enjoy doing it so much that it truly doesn’t even matter to me that I’m giving those things up.
These thoughts came to mind as I read the first chapter of Ephesians this morning. Read this:
(4) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: (5) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will…. (9) Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (10) That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
Okay, so I’ll be the first person to admit that I have the attention span of a gnat when I’m reading anything. In fact, when I was in college, I learned the art of reading-only-what-is-necessary (I can safely say now as a college lecturer myself that not everyone is blessed with this skill), and man, I was pretty good at it, too.
But I made a decision that I would do my best to NOT do that with Scripture. If I didn’t believe that every bit of Scripture was important, then why was I trying to read all of it?
So I hunkered down and read Paul’s greeting at the beginning of this chapter, despite the raging temptation within me to skip over it like I would the foreword of a textbook.
The conclusion I came to was compelling:
God is a dedicated, detail-oriented, and passionate planner, too.
Think about this: Before He made the world, He knew we would be on it. He had already planned to show us His love. He had already planned to give us good things. He had already planned to adopt us!
He even foresaw problems that we could cause with His plans and came up with another plan to counteract it. He knew He would have to send His Son here to help us in our direst moments.
If that isn’t exemplary planning, I don’t know what is.
Furthermore, I noticed that there was another detail to this fun personality trait of God’s that is probably overlooked a lot in this chapter. It’s in one of the recurring phrases you’ll see in this chapter: Good pleasure.
Could it be that God actually enjoys planning these things out as much as I enjoy planning a party? As much as I enjoyed planning for a new baby? As much as I love sitting back with a notebook and plotting out our next family vacation?
I’ll end with this—I figure that just as much as I enjoyed the months before my son was born, planning out his nursery, his wardrobe, his toy chest, God must enjoy making lavish plans for us, too. After all, He’s our father.
