At just the right time, God sent His Son to free us from the penalty of our sin and adopt us as His very own. (from Galatians 4:4-5)
God’s timing is always perfect, but in 2020 we found out that ours is not, as many things we planned would happen actually DIDN’T.
For instance, we DIDN’T get to:
Host a group of students from Taiwan.
Attend our grandson Joseph’s wedding in Wisconsin.
Enjoy visiting great-grand daughter Lillyana in Minnesota.
Follow through on carefully-made plans for church family camping.
Make trips to Rocky Mountain Park without a reservation.
But, on the positive side, we also DIDN’T:
Get covid 19.
Run out of toilet paper, or peanut butter.
Miss hosting grand-daughters Sarah and Rachel (and their husbands),
who did find places to hike despite the forest fires.
Miss camping trips (6) to Wyoming.
Miss out on church and small group Bible studies (thanks to Zoom).
Think about the life of Jesus:
2000 years ago the wise men DIDN’T return to Herod’s palace to help him find Jesus, so
Herod DIDN’T succeed in including him in his slaughter of infants.
Jesus DIDN’T yield to the devil’s temptations but willingly offered his life on the cross, suffering the punishment that we deserved.
Sometimes what DIDN’T happen turned out to be God’s plan after all —
We can make our plans, but we do not know what will happen. What we should say is “if the Lord wills” we will live and do this or that. (James 3:14-15).
Our year reminds us that we really are not in control and that our times are in God’s hands. This is a good thing: humbling and yet comforting. We can trust the One who IS in control, and know that His plan for our lives is perfect.
May God bless you and keep you close to Him.
Jim and Sue Found
I have added an article about the origins of Christmas Carols to my website: https://foundbytes.com/carol-stories/
Other pages new this year are:
Backgrounds of Bible terms: https://foundbytes.com/bible-terms/
How Christians use the Old Testament: https://foundbytes.com/tanakh/
You can get to the main menu of my website from any page by clicking on the site name, Personal Growth Resources, at the top of every page. You can also search for topics. If a search box does not automatically appear at the top of the page, you can get it by clicking on the three horizontal line at the upper right. Here is our Personal Information page