The only good plan is God’s plan, and perhaps, I just need to stay quiet for long enough that I can hear it…
When Elizabeth, mother of Saint John the Baptist, conceived her son the people around her made plans. She was an old woman and in those days, if a couple were unable to conceive a child it was seen as a sign that God was displeased with them – especially with the woman… And so, when an old woman who had long given up hope of having a child found herself miraculously pregnant, the people around her, who had probably long pitied her, would have started making plans.
Perhaps they would have gathered up the old baby clothes to share with her. Perhaps they gave her advice about how best to prepare for the child’s birth? I imagine the women sitting in their kitchen drinking tea or coffee or whatever they drank in those days and talking to each other as they prepared their meals for their families – what would the child look like? What would the child do? How would they cope with the change in routine?
I imagine the great joy in that household, with the man who had been struck dumb and his elderly wife and the new life between them…
And then – with all the neighbours planning how things would be and how they would help…
And then the boy was born. And the blessing and the praise. And mother and baby were well. And the joy Elizabeth would have experienced knowing that she had not displeased her God…
“On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they would have named him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said, ‘Not so; he shall be called John.’ And they said to her, ‘None of your kindred is called by this name.’ And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he would have him called. And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, ‘His name is John.’” (Luke 1:57-66).
And the people around them asked what the baby’s name would be and it was NOT Zechariah – it was John. And to prove it, Zechariah confirmed it – verbally – after having been unable to speak for nine whole months…
There are so many plans – plans that I make for my life and plans that others make for me. And those plans can make a real mess of things. Because those plans are physical. They belong to this world and not the next one. And in all those plans people are able to think about all the ways that things are “supposed” to be. In Saint John the Baptist’s day, boys were named after their fathers. And yet – God’s plan is different. And sometimes, the only way to get us to hear His plan – to get me to sit down and listen – is to strike me dumb (just as Zechariah was struck dumb)…
And I have been thinking about that today as I have been thinking about plans. For it seems the only good plan is God’s plan, and perhaps, I just need to stay quiet for long enough that I can hear it…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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