Unexpected Plans

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

Read Luke 1:26-38

What are your expectations for your life? Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Don’t you love these kind of questions? I had to write a paper my senior year of High School on “Where I am going to be in 10 years.” I don’t know about you, but as a High Schooler I put a lot of thought in my future. Would you like to hear the highlights? Ok, but only if you promise not to laugh.

·      Marry my High School crush…name to be left unmentioned J

·      Enlist in the Marine Corp and pursue Engineering, Construction and Demolition.

·      After serving 4 years, finish college with a Civil Engineering degree

·      Start my own company

·      Somewhere in those years have 3 kids

My actual paper was pretty specific. Ironically, the unnamed girl did have 3 children within 10 years, but she married my friend instead of me. What I can tell you is that I believed my course was set, I had full expectation and anticipation to walk this course. Those of you who know me, realize that this is far from what my life has turned out to be, but I wouldn’t change a thing!

God’s ways are not my ways nor are His thoughts my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). The Proverbs say it this way, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). It’s good to dream, to plan and to expect, but ultimately our life should be lived for God’s plan above our own. In my life, God’s plan has blessed me more than I could’ve ever imagined.

Unexpected Visitor

So my plans turned out far different then I could have imagined, but what about Mary? Imagine what it must have been like for her being in her mid teenage years and planning for a wedding. All her life she had been planning, preparing and anticipating finding the right boy and marrying him. Yet one fateful night her life and our world changed.

Something unpredictable, and unimaginable took place as the angel Gabriel appeared to her. “You are going to have a baby!” he declares. Whoa didn’t see that one coming! “The baby you are going to have is the Son of God and you will call Him Jesus.”

She was confused, frightened, and uncertain. How can this be? She was still a virgin and she was going to have a baby? “The Holy Spirit will work a miracle in you!” And Mary accepted the call to be the mother of the Messiah.

Expectations Change

Normal life was cast aside. Her engagement almost ended. Her future security was uncertain. Yet she was carrying the very Son of God who would take away the sins of the world.

You could imagine how her friends and family might have responded to her assertion that God miraculously impregnated her and she was till a virgin. In her culture, in that day and age, she would have gone through much persecution and shunning. Yet she was faithful to follow after God’s plan for her.

Though she could never have imagined this course, God worked a miracle in her life that has forever affected all of humanity. No embarrassment, no shunning, no risk was too great for her and the hope of holding that baby boy soon to come. That first Christmas when all the world around was going crazy and oblivious to what was happening in the little stable in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph had front row seats to the King of kings entering this world.

The privilege and honor to raise the Son of God through his earthly life was above and beyond anything she could have anticipated. The joy of knowing the Son of God so intimately superseded any of her former plans before that encounter with Gabriel.

The Hope We Have

You may have hopes, anticipations and expectations for your life. There is nothing inherently wrong about that. Maybe God will allow you to follow the course you have considered, but maybe He will work something completely different.

The hope we have in Jesus Christ is far greater then anything we can imagine. In Christ we have the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with the Father. In Christ we have the gift of the Holy Spirit and the power to overcome. In Christ we have the hope of living a full and abundant life.

So when God begins to do a work in your life plan that is different then what you expected, don’t fear it, embrace it. Look to see that even though it might be tough at times, God is working something in you for His glory and your good!