Blueprints
“God has a blueprint for every life, and God has a blueprint for yours!” This was one of Dad’s lessons for us little ones in family devotions, the earliest that I remember clearly. Perhaps he had a picture to show us what a blueprint looked like, I don’t recall. But, even though I couldn’t have been more than three years old, I seemed to understand what he was telling us.
“When we meet Jesus in Heaven, He will show us our blueprint, what he planned for our life. Then He’ll say, ‘Now, let’s look at how your life matches My blueprint,’ to see if we followed God’s plan or not.” With these few words, our Dad painted a picture that has served as a reminder throughout my life that God created us for a purpose.
We have many appropriate names for our Lord that describe how He loves and cares for us. Savior, the Good Shepherd, the Great Physician are names that come quickly to mind. As Creator, some might say, He is also the Great Architect, the design he has encoded in DNA being a blueprint that all creation follows from generation to generation.
The idea of blueprints is a good one. Even little children can understand the concept. As a storyteller, however, one of my favorite insights into the Godhead is the picture of God as Author and Finisher of our faith!
So many of us have our favorite Bible story. Mine is the story of Joseph and his brothers. When I realized how that story portrays the grand epic of Jesus, first rejected by His brethren as part of God’s plan, and the promised restoration, I wept. What a marvelous Storyteller our Lord is! He is the Author of all those great Bible stories we know and love. But, that isn’t all. He continues to create “characters,” develop “plots,” building the “drama,” whether comedy or tragedy or a bit of both, to the “climax,” when all will be fulfilled, revealed and understood. Like the blueprint plan, God continues to write our story, yours and mine, according to His outline. Like a good journalist, He includes the Who (you and me), What, When, Where, Why and How of our story. What an adventure, being the main character in a story written by the Almighty Himself!
This gives each of us our own story to tell.
“Who, me?” Nobody can tell your own story the way you can. Once, I heard a man tell his story “You can’t outgive God.” He had transcribed it into a tract, of which he made good use. When talking to strangers, before parting he would say, “May I share my story with you?” as he pulled one of these tracts from his pocket. That man was prepared!
“What do I have to tell?” Tell what you know, your own experiences of life. God has written all these events on the pages of your life and mine for good reason, to reveal Himself to us and to others through us.
“When....” 1 Peter 3:15 “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you....”
“Where will I find anybody wanting to listen?” God gives us opportunities. Keep those eyes and ears open!
“Why would I want or need to tell my story?” The bottom line is to give glory to God.
“How” you tell your story is up to you. Imagine the life cut short of a young poet. But, she wrote a poem that became a hymn that still touches hearts for the Savior more than a hundred years after she is gone! Imagine the witness to be found in a grandfather’s diaries, or a grandmother’s Bible, filled with notes in the margins of the Word! Whatever the desires of your heart, the talents, possessions, follow where God leads through them. Use what you have, do what you can, then let God perfect it!
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.... (Malachi 3:16 KJV)
Copyright 2006 - by - Edy T. Johnson
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