Preparing for God's Plan

There seems to be an equal mix in our world of the understanding people have of the idea of fate vs. a structured plan based on our lives that is scripted down to the very detail.  People fall on either side of the spectrum on this.  And let’s not discount Christians, because while we don’t call it fate, there is something to be said for the easy-breezy-plan-in-action vs. the every-detail-put-in-place-theory.

Let me give you an example.  Currently in the sports world, winter meetings are being held, so it’s time to bring up baseball, right?  I have a friend who plays against me in fantasy baseball.  During the Dodger/Cardinal series, our friendship became somewhat strained.  Let’s just say verbal shots were fired.  He was very disappointed to watch his boyhood team fall to my Cardinals.  If you remember Carlos Beltran, now a Yankee, that’s like jumping ship.  Royals, Mets, and Cardinals are all fine, but you are going to end in the pin stripes; anyway, Carlos voiced his disappointment with the way the Dodger players expressed their enthusiasm.  As Carlos bounced off the wall in Game 1 of the World Series, my friend’s opinion was  that it was just karma.  I shook my head as I heard that comment.  My friend is a strong Christian, a Lutheran teacher, in fact, but his superstitious baseball head takes over in moments like that.  He assumed that because Carlos made those comments that was what caused him to bruise his ribs!  Unreal, right?

In a similar but unique way as my Dad dove more into the non-denominational church body, I discovered he held this very defined understanding that God was in control of everything in our lives.  Many of the comments dealing with worship, healing, and even day-to-day events seemed to him and his fellow followers to be driven by God.  I remember him telling me once that, “God told me to go to the flower shop.” Even as a teenager I shook my head at this comment.  There was no way I felt that God was defining moments as small as flower shop visits.

Yet, as we approach Christmas, we see commercials about Santa putting coal into packages for some people.  We have constant reminders that if we are good we will receive gifts.  The underlying message is that good things come to good people.  It is our way of spreading the idea of fate based upon works.  And that, of course, throws a huge monkey wrench into people’s understanding of why they would even need a Savior if it is all based upon their good behavior.

All of this comes together in the reading this week.  And, if not examined closely, we could draw the conclusion that fate and good behavior were driving these stories. When Scripture speaks of Mary as favored in the eyes of the Lord, it continues on to define how all things worked together perfectly to bring the House of David, the promise to Jacob, and two upstanding citizens into God’s plan.  So how do we understand all of this?  How do we argue against our world’s conventional way to determine who is good and who is bad?  How do we look at the face of fate and karma and challenge those who subscribe to these ideas that God guides us, but we do have free will?  And with all those questions how do we understand why Mary was chosen, and why do some churches lift her name higher than others?

           

These are good questions that don’t have easy answers; yet, some of the answers are found in the context of Scripture.  In our preparation for Christmas, a time we call Advent, it is important to understand God’s very definitive plan.  God was headed in one direction and all of Scripture points to the central message of our Savior’s birth.  These passages are not speaking about flower shops or where the donkey was fed; instead they are focused on bringing God’s plan back from the brokenness of sin.  In the context of Scripture, we find that Mary was a woman who received a full amount of grace.  That same grace is needed by all of us, but in Mary’s case that Word incarnate, that grace, was literally sitting in her belly like Thanksgiving dinner.  It is difficult not to express this as full of grace or favored.  As Scripture unveils all the relationships Joseph had with the line of David, it also describes the connection with Jacob and the promise that his house would live forever.  Jacob was a man who begged, and wrestled for the blessing of God.  As this story unfolds, we see something that is neither fate, nor karma, but something that was God’s absolute plan to bring all things together in order to rescue His people.  And along the way, He chose people to accomplish this.  As Jesus was born, He used Mary, but in this day and age we must prepare for the moments when He will employ our unique gifts to fill people with grace.  I pray in this season of preparation that the story of an angel appearing to Mary isn’t just some story you have read a million times, but is a reminder of the grace God puts right in the middle of our lives as Jesus comes to rescue us.  Keep your eyes open.  You never know when God is going to use you to drop grace right into the life of some unexpected someone!