Plans change

For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest. (Jeremiah 29:11-13 TLB)

What is a future without any hope? What are plans worth if not held together by hope? Today, there is a wood bed frame out of trash pick up on my neighbor's driveway. The headboard is also just wood railings, but as I glance out on it, I don't see a bed. I see the framework for a mobile tool table on wheels! Now, when that bed manufacturer put those plans together for the bed frame, he probably didn't see any future for that frame other than being a bed. There are always other ways those things intended for one purpose become quite useful for an entirely different purpose in the hands of someone who sees them with just a little different hope.

I am looking at all things a little differently since I am working to outfit my workshop with storage, workbenches, and the like. There is a 'practical' side to salvaging good wood and turning it into other projects. One can take a perfectly beat up dresser and turn it into a stunning accent piece in their home with a little planning and hard work! In our daily lives, there are things planned for us and plans we make. Each carries a certain sense of 'design' to them. That is really what a plan is - a design. All designs begin with a mission in mind - we set out to create something because there is a need for it in our lives. We need a workbench, so we set out a design. We might go through various steps of planning in order to design the bench, but in the end we are left with at least a rough image of what we desire to see formed.

As we go through life, God has plans for us - he has 'designed' certain things for our lives that are to be placed there for our growth, character development, enjoyment, etc. Those designs are only as good as him taking actions upon what he has planned. I don't know if I will actually drag that wood frame into the yard and begin to break it down into usable pieces to reclaim for my workbench, but the possibility is there. God acts upon possibilities. He doesn't just stop with the planning phase. He sees the vision of what he desires for us - sets out the plans for how that vision should be 'acted out' - then he sets in motion the actions that helps what he has planned to become a reality in our lives.

As we walk out those times when what he has planned doesn't quite seem all that clear to us yet, it is sometimes quite hard to keep a hope that the finished product will ever become a reality. We may not fully understand the plans - only seeing fragments of them revealed to us. It is kind of like a book of blueprint images. One page looks very clear for just that 'phase' of the work, but without seeing how plan one fits with plan fifty, we are lost to know how the 'finished product' will actually look! While my 'planning' for the workbench may not become a reality from that particular piece of salvaged wood, it will become a reality. Sometimes plans change, but the hope of the finished product remains the same! Never lose hope. Just sayin!