Chess, not checkers

From the beginning of time, God had a plan. He planned to commune with humanity but we allowed sin to enter in. However, that was still His plan. He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve and talked with them daily. Satan and his twistedness ruined that as Eve was deceived.

Everything that has happened since has been orchestrated to aline with His plan. With thousands of promises in His Word, He paints a picture of His plan. Approximately 300 promises were specifically made regarding Jesus and His plan of salvation. God plays the long game. 

From the beginning of time, He has been working, often in the background. He made sure that Adam and Eve continued to have the means to survive. He provided protection and survival for Noah when the evil of the world became too much. He provided a means to continue the human race after that. 

When the world again turned to evil at the Tower of Babel, He confused their languages instead of killing them all again. As they dispersed with those they could understand, they populated this rock we call home. 

Carefully orchestrating genealogy, He promised Abraham to be the father of many nations. From him, we have the line that ultimately produced Christ’s. He called Abram to trust Him, for the seemingly impossible. He produced a mother of Rahab. He brought a widow into the right space at the right time to provide the continued lineage. 

The stories continue as He brought miracles after miracle to those He called. Promises were made and promises were kept. Each step throughout history claiming more of them. Each step bringing us closer to His plan of salvation. 

He brought a child to old couples to show He didn’t stay within the humanity bounds we do. Zechariah and Elizabeth were considered ‘too old’ to have children and were thought to be infertile. They said the same about Abraham and Sarah. But God’s chess game said otherwise. 

Each of these stories lined up to bring us the biggest promise of all. Each step carefully planned to allow Him to move and His glory be known. Each step required so He could continue His plan with His greatest creation. 

As I sit here this morning, watching my Christmas tree flicker, I lift my coffee cup and realize I see a message from my Jesus. “My Love” The whole of it is the greatest love story that was ever told. Everything in all of history to provide an opportunity to commune with our Creator. Him over there playing chess not checkers. 

We don’t get to today without His touch. He made me realize something this morning. Everything being a part of His plan, for sure, but made me realize that we look at history with a broad brush. He absolutely played chess and was 20000 steps ahead of us. But what about Abraham? What about Rahab, David, Elizabeth, Mary? 

They didn’t know. They didn’t have a clue what their lives would ultimately end up meaning for the rest of us. In the midst of his promise of being a father of nations, Abraham’s struggle to hold on to that led him to sin that causes problems to this day. God’s orchestrated plans for his life weren’t seen as he sat around his fire childless for decades. 

Rahab was a prostitute. You couldn’t have told her in her daily life that her line would ultimately produce a king. She was likely struggling. We don’t know her story or why she became a prostitute. We have no idea the scars she carried. God saw her though, even in the midst of what the world, and likely Rahab, called the bottom of the barrel, He saw her and had big plans for her. 

Chess, not checkers. His ways don’t always look super obvious. Zechariah was silent for the time it took to conceive and carry John into this world. You can’t tell me that felt good, that this was an easy ask. You can’t tell me that didn’t make his life more difficult on the daily. Look at the impact of John though. Look how He orchestrated his arrival so that Jesus had the path He was supposed to have. 

Over and over again, we can see Him move through scriptures. With the broad view time provides we see how He made plans and completed them. In the midst of the struggles though, we have no idea what He has planned. That heartache may be used to produce something great in His plan. That struggle we have in the moment is being utilized to create something needed within us. That terrible thing, while not caused by God, will be used by Him. 

So as I sit with my coffee in the still of this Christmas morning, “my love” brought me here. Each burden, struggle, heartache, pain, and trial has been saturated in His love. His love over the span of time with one goal in mind, to win our hearts back to Him. He does indeed plan ahead as in chess vs the short foresight of checkers. 

I can rest in that. When things feel hard and I feel overwhelmed, Romans 8:28 reminds me to hang on. Galatians 6:9 tells us that it will all be worth it. He has a plan, even in the midst of heartache and failure.