God's Timing

Recently I've been contemplating aspects of who and what God is... and the fact that, as Ephesians 1 tells us, He actually blessed us as His children even before he elected us. That means His first act toward me was to bless me, to give me the gift of His son, as well as many other blessings -- spiritual and temporal -- on deposit right now, waiting for me to acquire the capacity to receive them. Being perfectly just, He knows it wouldn't be fair to give me blessings I have no capacity for. Without capacity they wouldn't be blessings, they would be causes for misery and might even destroy my spiritual life. Or my life altogether.

But capacity or not, they are still there and that is very cool to consider: that there are incredible blessings I can't even imagine, incredible open doors just waiting ahead of me -- and ahead of every one of God's children -- to walk through.

Or how about the fact that God is outside of time, and so in eternity past He had an infinite amount of time to consider all the options and ramifications of those options and has chosen only what would be best for me specifically. And He's put all that into a perfect plan that is based on His perfect omniscience, His perfect love and justice and righteousness. And timing.

God always does the right thing in the right way at the right time. Always. He can never make a mistake and He has complete control over my life. There is not one detail that He does not know about and has not taken into account. In fact, many of the details -- the ones I enjoy and the ones I do not -- were specifically chosen to bring me to the place that I am now.

These are things a novelist can really understand. We do the same sorts of things -- though not perfectly, like He does -- with our characters!

And right now, these are things this novelist is really holding to her heart. Because I have become very aware of the fact that I am just a character in the novel of my life, the novel that God is writing. And like any character in a novel, I have no idea what is going to happen in the next chapter, the next scene, not even on the next page. Because unlike many human novelists, God is not a predictable plotter. We can't begin to guess what He has in store, only that it very likely won't be what we think it will be. Or even what we think it should be.

But that's because we have wormish little minds that don't really understand what life and reality and God Himself is all about. No matter. He will reveal this life and plan He has for me in His perfect timing, moment by moment, day by day. And all my anxiety and fussing and trying to force it is a total waste of time. Rather than try to peer into the future, I'll just relax and like a faithful reader, entrust myself to His very capable hands.

Grace,
Karen