Why Does God Write His Plans In Crooked Lines?
When God wants us to do something, He never chooses an easy route to accomplish it. But do not let God’s ways fool you. God has a plan in mind. God’s plans are more about the people involved in its design rather than the outcome of the plan itself.
Take Adam and Eve, our first parents. God gave them everything in that garden with only one condition. They were asked to refrain from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was this a test? Many would say yes it was. But was it really? They truly didn’t need the fruit from this tree. They had more than enough fruit to choose. And they had God’s love, as the saying goes: “Where there is Love, nothing is missing.”
God sought friendship from Adam and Eve. Friends always freely choose to trust because they believe their friend’s word. God wanted Adam and Eve to keep the bond of their friendship with Him unbroken.
The command not to eat the fruit was to confirm their friendship and their commitment. Every time they turned away from the tree, choosing not to eat its fruit, they were honoring and recommitting to God’s friendship.
Of course, we know what happened when they didn’t choose to remain loyal friends. It was a betrayal with trust shattered and its seal broken, because loyalty was sullied.
Later, God chose Abraham and Sarah, a childless, elderly couple to start a nation of chosen people telling them their descendants would be more numerous than the stars in the heavens. From their appearance, no one thought this was possible. Yet, it became a reality.
Neither wavered in their trust in God, even when pushed to the limit with God’s request to sacrifice their son Isaac. Instead, they choose to hold tightly to the bond of God’s friendship. When obstacles arose in their path, Abraham and Sarah opted to remain loyal and choosing to trust God at every uncertainty.
We have Mary and Joseph as shining examples of trusting in God for Jesus’ birth. In Bethlehem, they looked everywhere to rent a comfortable room in an inn and found none.
Yet, they didn’t bicker with God at their predicament. Mary and Joseph accepted a stable with a manger full of straw, where Jesus, God’s Son and Savior of the world, was born.
Again, they trusted God, staying faithful, even when not fully understanding what God was asking them to do. Trusting that God knew best, they welcomed Jesus into this rough and rustic setting
Indeed, God often chooses pathways which take patient consideration to think through to understand fully God’s plan. This is why our God is so astonishing and so full of surprises. He simply writes with crooked lines and lets us choose to do it or not. God’s ways are not our ways, but God knows exactly what he is doing. He simply waits for us to catch up, believe, and then trust God to make it happen.
No matter what we face, it’s in God’s plan. He knows the end he desires when he composes it. God is never as anxious to get to the finish line as we might be, and he takes his time with what happens along the way.
We grasp our journey’s meaning only when we take each step along the way as we are supposed to – with the final step falling perfectly in place. If God made us to be with Him, we need to trust that every road, crooked or straight, leads to Him. Be patient. Stay trusting. Make every turn!
Be more concerned with the next step rather than only the last on. -St. Francis De Sales
