A Season of Hope ~ Preparing Our Hearts for Easter
Proverbs 8:23
“I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”
All the carefully laid plans were in place. Airline tickets for a family trip to England were booked, accommodations rented, and tickets for a variety of venues were all secured. And then the unexpected happened: a world-wide pandemic hit.
My husband and I are planners and tend to be organized about most things. We plan our days, weeks, months, and even a year or two ahead, especially when it comes to travel. Our planning helps us to be considerate of each other’s time and our commitments, and helps us stay focused. We have learned through the years that our plans are a vague blueprint and, on occasion, they have been thwarted by circumstances. And so, as disappointed as we were, being home rather than enjoying a vacation overseas turned out to be a better plan as my husband’s brother’s health took a turn, and he passed away during the period we would have been gone. God, in His sovereignty, knew from the beginning, and we praised Him for His hand in our situation.
God’s plan for the redemption of the world reveals He also had a blueprint, but it was anything but vague. His plan was carefully crafted “in the beginning,” before the foundation of the world, one that would bring salvation through a Savior, His Son Jesus.
The Bible’s first words in Genesis declare, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth…” and soon after God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…” “in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.” But it wasn’t long before the first inhabitants in the Garden, Adam and Eve, disobeyed their Creator by eating the forbidden fruit, committing humankind’s first sin against God. The impact of that one sin separated Adam and Eve from fellowship with the Father and passed down to humankind a condition of sin that resulted in eternal separation for each person born since. From the beginning we were condemned.
Until Jesus came.
This did not surprise God to where He needed to come up with a “Plan B.” Jesus was never a contingency plan; He was there from the beginning—”Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.” And God continues to point to His Son as the One throughout the Bible. He told us from the beginning that a Redeemer would come, the One who was everlasting, the One who would crush the serpent’s head, the One who would be the Passover Lamb, and the One who would be born in Bethlehem, the One who would die on Calvary. When sin entered the world and caused ruin in every way possible, our inability to make things right with God was already meant to lead us to surrender. Our rescue was already in the mind of God, and the course of redemption was already set. God crafted a way to rescue His rebellious, helpless, hopeless people, from the beginning.
That dark day on Golgotha was the plan all along.
Have you placed your faith in Jesus, the One who atoned for the sin passed down from the beginning?
Thank you, dear Lord, for Your sovereign plan, that from the beginning You had us on Your mind. Forgive us for all the ways we get in Your way with our own plans. Fill us with trust that Your way is always the better one and we will praise You. In the name of Jesus, our Redeemer, we pray. Amen.
