May 7 - Acts 2: A Deliberate and Well-Thought-Out Plan

Right now, daily life for me includes a lot of planning.  Orchestra trips, end-of- school-year celebrations, soccer and swim team events, carpools, meals and grocery lists, financial juggling, and all the preparations necessary to leave the country for a couple of weeks.  Lots of lists, emails, reservations, adjustments, and conversations to have in order to make each event meaningful, enjoyable, and convenient for the people involved.  I get some satisfaction from most of the planning and feel fairly competent in the deliberations.  But, when plans don't go smoothly or there's disappointment in an outcome or when there's just too much at once, I can feel defeated and overwhelmed.  It's all part of being the mom and family coordinator.

God's plans for His Son were much more detailed, comprehensive, and purposeful than mine will ever be.  The Message calls God's plans "deliberate and well-thought-out."  Unlike mine, the point of God's plans was not to keep anyone from being inconvenienced or disappointed.   He chose the opposite for His Son.  His plans were for Jesus to be, "betrayed by men who took the law into their own hands...pinned him to a cross and killed him"  (2:23-24).   Can you imagine making those kind of painful and distressing plans for your child or for anyone you love?

Peter explains that God's plans had been in place for a long time and that the cross was not the ultimate outcome.  God revealed to David that the purpose of these plans moved through suffering and into life:

I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed.  You canceled my ticket to hell - that's not my destination!  Now you've got my feet on the life path, all radiant from the shining of your face.   (Psalm 16:9-11)

God's deliberate and well-thought-out plans for us are the exact same as for David - to be happy from the inside out, firmly formed, our ticket to hell canceled, feet on the life path lit by the radiance of Christ.  Wow.  God's plans for me are truly good.