Meant For Here And Now - Dinner #29

     Sometimes I find myself imagining where my family and I would be if we existed during a different time in history.  It’s amusing to picture my husband wearing a pair of overalls and plowing a field, for instance, or serving the king of England as a knight in shining armor. SMILE!  But then there are other graver possibilities to consider.  If we had been born earlier in history, would we even be alive at the age we’re at right now? In a different era, the inflamed appendix I had during my first year of teaching, might have ruptured, killing me at the age of 22.  In a different era, my Brooklyn could have lost so much weight in those first few months of her life, that she died in infancy.  Do we ever stop to think of God’s wonderful sovereignty in allowing us to be born into the world at PRECISELY the right moment?!  Do we praise Him for seeing all past, present, and future, and orchestrating every detail of history?

     Esther 4:14 asks the soul-searching question, “. . . and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” The truth of the matter is, God has placed each of us here in this world, in the year 2011, “for such a time as this”.  He makes no mistakes! In II Peter 3:8, we are reminded of an important fact about our God.  “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  In Revelation 1:8, God declares, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending . . .which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”  Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven . . . He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.” God’s view of time is not the same as our own – He sees the entire picture from start to finish.  There are people He wants you to meet, hearts He wants you to touch, lives He wants you to minister to, for His glory!  You weren’t MEANT to live during World War I, the Pioneer days, or the War for Independence – You were meant for HERE AND NOW!  God MADE you for HERE AND NOW! 

     In John 17:4, the Lord Jesus declared, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” At the end of my life, will I be able to say the same? What are you doing with this time God has given to YOU?  Ephesians 5:16-17 reminds us to be “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”  Take hold of life!  He put you right where you are, in this time and place, for a special reason!

     Wouldn’t it be incredible to see the world around us as God sees it? To step into the grocery store and see everyone – the woman who will discover she has cancer next month, the man who lost his wife last year, the wife who is pregnant and doesn’t know it yet, etc. – all at the same time?!  COULD we ever know what was going on in each person’s heart and life? No, but God knows it every day! And just think! You could have the opportunity of being placed by God, right in the middle of all of them – right there in that particular grocery store, at that precise moment in history, “ . . . for such a time as this . . .” It happens to us every single second, without us even thinking about it!  Do we make our own decisions day by day? Of course we do! And, yet, our God is ultimately in control of it all, orchestrating every encounter and every circumstance.  Nothing ever happens to us by chance!  YOU are not here on this earth by chance!  You were meant for HERE AND NOW!