How can you not get a warm feeling while thinking about snow glistening in the lane and a fire crackling in the fireplace? Add a few friends and you understand why C.S. Lewis once asked, “Is there any pleasure on earth as great as a circle of as Christian friends by a fire?”
It’s the kind of moment that you never want to end.
But it does end. Every minute is a snowflake of time that has never been before and never will be again.
Try as we might, we can't replicate time. We can't control it, either. We have to plan accordingly. No matter how hard we conspire, the “plans that we’ve made” cannot be faced “unafraid” without understanding God is ultimately in control.
We don't do so well with that.
Why is it the only plans I can face unafraid - the plans that God has for me - are the plans I don’t trust? The plans I should be afraid of - mine - I trust.
If the New Testament author, James, was sitting around the fire in cozy conspiration with you about the future, he would pour some water on the flames and say, Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."
The only thing we can plan about the future is that it will be unpredictable. Think about what has happened to you over the course of the last year. How many of those things did you see coming? If last year worked like that, how do you suppose the next five years might transpire?
The unpredictability of life is inversely proportional to the stability of God. His strength is perfect. His timing impeccable. His love immeasurable. His faithfulness is great.
Plans we can face unafraid are plans we face in the strength of Jesus and in light of His return. This way we are never disappointed because all our hope is tied up in Him, the only God capable of becoming human flesh, living a sinless life, dying in my place, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, and promising to come again.
Fireplace or not, I like that plan.
