Plans? Oh, I’ve got plans. Big plans and little plans. Monday morning and Thursday afternoon plans. Everyday plans and special day plans. And I’ve definitely got Christmas plans. The trouble with my plans, though, is that they never seem to work out quite as, well, planned.

Can you relate?

If asked, I will tell you that all my planning is an attempt to be organized and on top of things. To get it all done. But can I just confess something here? In my heart of hearts, I know that all these plans are my own rather pitiful attempt to control what cannot be controlled. Namely, life in this world.

The Best Laid Plans

No matter how detailed or well thought out, inevitably, my plans are thwarted by some small yet oh-so-essential detail that I completely overlooked. (Thaw the turkey?) Or they might be derailed by something I never saw coming. (Pinkeye on Christmas Eve? But the party’s at my house!) And there have been times when all my carefully plotted out plans were simply blasted into oblivion by something completely beyond my control. (Snowed in? Today? But I live in the South!)

So, when I read through the story of Jesus’s birth, one of the things I can’t help but think about was how this whole event—as wonderful and eternity-changing as it was—was not part of anyone’s plans.

Not Zechariah’s or Elizabeth’s. Not Joseph’s. And certainly not Mary’s.

No doubt, each of them had plans of their own. Carefully thought-out plans that, I’m pretty sure, didn’t involve unexpected pregnancies, nine months of being speechless, angels, dreams of angels, and up-in-the-air wedding plans.

And, yet all those changes in plans made way for God’s plan. His perfect plan.

Before the World Began

Like everything God does, His plan was perfect from beginning to end. And here’s the fact that leaves me humbled and awed and a bit speechless myself: God created this plan to save His people before He even created the world those people would live in.

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. (Ephesians 1:4, NLT)

God created this perfect plan knowing full well how badly and how often we would mess up. And He did it knowing right from the start—even before the start—that He would send His own Son to suffer and die in our stead.

I Don’t Understand

I’ll confess that I don’t understand. I don’t get it. It’s not what I would do. Create a people in my own image, knowing that they would oh-so-quickly and oh-so-often throw away my love and care? Then make a plan to save them from the very mess they made for themselves? And the key to this whole plan is to sacrifice my own son?

It’s too big, too grand, too generous. It’s asking too much of me and my heart. Nope. I wouldn’t do it.

But God did.

No, I don’t understand the kind of omniscience needed to plot out such a perfect plan. I don’t understand the kind of power needed to carry it out over the span of thousands of years. But mostly, I don’t understand that kind of love. I don’t understand it, but I’m endlessly grateful for it. I want to soak it up and I want to pour it out on the world so that He can drench me in it again. 

The Perfect Gift

Often at this time of year, our plans include setting out to find the perfect gift. But it’s a fruitless mission because the perfect gift has already been given. It’s the one that was perfectly planned out so very long ago, wrapped in swaddling cloths, and laid in a manger.

Unfathomable love. Undeserved mercy. Unending and amazing grace.

From creation to the manger to the cross.

Merry Christmas . . .

with love . . .

from God.

Abba, my Father, thank You isn’t really enough, is it? But I do thank You and praise You and lift my heart up to You in awestruck and endless praise. You are so, so good. And Your gift? It’s a perfect fit for me. Amen.

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