I suppose most of us think of our lives in terms of destinations. We focus on results more than the journey. When I reach this point then I will do that. Achieving destinations is what it’s all about.
“When-and-then” thinking.
But I have discovered in my own life God is much more interested in the journey than I am. Rather than dwelling on end results I believe He enjoys the process.
Right! And processing me is His ultimate goal. My waiting and persevering years, which can look like a total waste to me, are actually where most of the changes are taking place to prepare me for God’s purposes and plans for me.
I confess, like most people of my day and time, I am addicted to motion. I like momentum. God on the other hand, is the Father of patience and stillness, preferring quieter days of becoming rather than frenetic days of doing.
Such is often the tension that exists between my dreams and God’s plans!
God likens Himself to a Vinedresser. A Grower of Fruit. Of course the ultimate goal in a fine vineyard is delicious fruit, or fine wine, yes? But those results are achieved only by careful years of planning, growing, and pruning. It is that process that must precede the harvest, and come before the ultimate results are obtained. The Vinedresser must take into account the good years as well as the bad. He looks always to the long view. A season of wet weather or dismal drought, or even that year’s harvest, are all secondary to the ongoing health and longevity of His vines.
And after all, that is how God sees us—as His Vineyard.
We are the Vines of His choosing and jealously He guards us; tends us; prepares us. Even in our unwinding journey, He sees into our future, and all the acres and acres of ripening fruit that will be, one day.
And I am once again reminded.
His eternal plan* has always been.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1: 3-6
* video is 50 min. long but this amazing story is well worth it!
