Oh, that You would burst forth

from the skies and come down!

How the mountains would quake in Your presence!

The consuming fire of Your glory would

burn down the forests and boil the ocean dry!

Isaiah 64:1 (Taylor’s Living Paraphrase)

Judah was in trouble and in the scripture above is begging God for help. “Do something, God! Your magnificent power would stupefy everyone and Your glory would be spread throughout the world! Do something!”

I’ve been there begging’have you? And it seems that what we are “begging” for would be such an easy thing for God to do! “God! Split the heavens and come down! Manifest Yourself some way! Do what only You can do!”

God didn’t “split the heavens and come down” as His only Son was tortured horribly, whipped unmercifully, crucified, and gasped futilely for air. And He saw. He was watching everything that happened. Why, oh why, did He not burst forth from Heaven and consume with fire those who were mocking Jesus?

“But if He had intervened that day, think of what would have happened! Everyone on that forsaken hill would have fallen to their knees and the story would have been told over and over and over again! He would have received great glory!” Oh, but God had much greater things in mind. Those few Palestinians on the hill would have seen, but God had the “world” in mind’He had you and me in mind!

Why does He wait and wait and wait when we so desperately are begging Him to “do something?” Why? Because God is omniscient. He knows everything. He has His plans all drawn up and we cannot grasp His ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9 NAS). We didn’t know what God had in mind that dark day on Calvary’s hill. He was fulfilling the plan that had been set in motion before the foundation of the earth. He was redeeming mankind. He was making a way for us to regain our fellowship with Him. He was opening Heaven’s doors for His children. Reconciled at last!

And we can say, “I see that was necessary for His plan to be carried out! But why war, why tragedies, why suffering?” Because He is fulfilling the plan that was set in motion for you and me before the foundation of the world. God has a plan for my life as surely as He had a plan for Jesus.

“But that was Jesus! He was the unblemished sacrifice necessary for redemption. That isn’t true of the men and women dying in the war. That isn’t true of the thousands of people who are suffering unbearably even as you write.”

And you are saying, “We are all so insignificant. I am insignificant’no one is depending on me to bring about such amazing results.” No, but God has a plan for you and for me and He is busily completing His plan in our lives. We dream such noble dreams of being used in a mighty way’dying would be less fearful if we knew that great and mighty things were going to result’like with Jesus. But perhaps our definition of “great and mighty” things isn’t the same as God’s definition? Perhaps what He has planned for us is very important’great and mighty’in His mind?

Trusting God when we are hurting, when we are grieving, when we see havoc all around us’that isn’t easy to do. But that is all part of His plan for us. Would we have realized our need for Him unless we had suffered? No. Suffering is part of His plan. He knows that when we have exhausted all other avenues for comfort and have no other comfort than His, we find His comfort is sufficient. Only when we are engulfed in grief and have no other recourse but to turn to Him we find that as we turn to Him, our grief ebbs. And this is all a vital part of redemption’s amazing story. Redemption from death and hell is unfathomable grace, yes, but redemption from the hell on earth is also unfathomable grace. This is His dream for all of His children. Great things. Mighty things. We are a part of God’s redemptive plan!

I had a difficult time when our #2 son was born with Hurler’s Syndrome and according to the doctor’s research would be “incurably ill and hopelessly retarded”. How

could God possibly use Mason’s limited life? Yes, it brought us closer to the Lord as we lived with that precious child, but “great and mighty things?” Yes. Great and mighty things! Mason has touched so many people with his little life that we can only shake our heads in wonder. God had a plan for Mace and we watched that plan begin to unfold when he was twelve years old and returned to the God who had sent him.

Remember, your days were all written down in God’s journal before there was even one day of your life lived (Psalm 139:16)! Remember, too, that we choose either to be a part of the great and mighty things He has planned for us or we choose to shake our head, say no to His plan and go with our own plan, aborting the incredible plans He has made.

Yes. God knows. God has plans for you and who knows but what you were born for such a time as this (Esther 4:14)? How significant is that?