Best Laid Plans...

Last week, our family intended to get away for a mini-vacation. Now that the youth gathering is over and our baseball season has finally ended, we wanted to get away for some family time during the small window before fall activities start up. Head north up to Maine where we have yet to go. We’ve heard so many good things. Unfortunately, and for a variety of different reasons, our plans never really came together. Acadia State Park will have to wait for now.  Bummer. Such is life. The best laid plans…
 
My family is certainly not the first to have our plans derailed by circumstances beyond our control. We are not the first to not take the vacation. We are not unique in having plans never come to fruition. Not the first, and definitely not the last.  We’ve all been there plenty of times before. Plans crumble, intentions fall apart.    The Old Testament reading for this coming Sunday is from the prophet Isaiah.  In this reading, we are reminded that in a world of trouble and unrest, idolatry and best-laid plans there is only one steady solution. The ways of this world may lead to disappointment and death, but the Lord provides the way out.

The verses prior to this reading paint a terrible picture of judgement against those who reject and mock the Lord; but we are then reminded that God provides a way of escape for those who trust in Him. He promises that while the many plans and efforts of men will be consumed by fire; those that remain faithful will worship the Lord forever. “And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them,” the Lord declares (66:18).  Even hundreds of years before His arrival, the prophet Isaiah anticipated the sign. Jesus is that sign. In Jesus, the ultimate plan of redemption and salvation comes to fruition.  This plan is none other than God’s Himself and cannot be foiled. It cannot crumble or fall apart. What a beautiful, permanent vacation awaits us in the remade heavens and earth of our God!
 
“The LORD detests the thoughts of the wicked, but the words of the pure are pleasant to Him.” (Proverbs 15:26)