I know the plans I have for you...

I am learning to quilt and recently took on a new project.  I picked out my pattern and my fabrics and was excited to get started.  I got home, prewashed, ironed, cut, sewed, and as of yesterday I am looking at just two of the fabrics together and to be honest they look awful.  I have completely lost sight of the big picture and the only thing keeping me sewing this ugly quilt is the fact that I know there is a plan.  I had a vision of what the finished product would look like, there in the fabric store, and I trust that even though I can’t see it today, once I get all the fabrics in in the right proportions, I will have created something beautiful.  This is in contrast to other art projects I have started with no (or at best, a very loosely defined) master plan.  A great percentage of the time, those turn out really badly.

So I am staring at an ugly green and tan square, and find myself praising God that he has a master plan.  Even when I am stuck in the details of earthly things that feel so permanent, even when I can’t see how all around me is working together for my good, even when I don’t understand why I have to go through things that hurt.  He has a plan, he promises that it’s good, and he promises that he will complete it instead of just giving up on this mess of awful looking fabric.  He made sure to write all these things in His word, because He knew I would need to be told, and then reminded over and over and over.

 ¹⁰"For thus says the LORD:^(A) When seventy years are completed for Babylon,^(B) I will visit you,^(C) and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. ^11(D) For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil,^(E) to give you a future and a hope. ^12(F) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. ^13(G) You will seek me and find me, when you seek me^(H) with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you, declares the LORD,^(I) and I will restore your fortunes and^(J) gather you from all the nations and all the places^(K) where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.  –Jeremiah 29:10-14