Planned for a Purpose

I was an accident. At least that’s what I used to think. I was fourteen when I did the math to realize there’s only seven months between February and September. 1962 was the year my parents married in February and I was born in September.
“I was a big accident,” I said to my parents as I discovered their marriage was only seven months older than I was. Big enough to usher them down the aisle of matrimony, I thought.

They looked at each other and smiled. They knew the day would come when I would put two and two together. They looked back and forth at me and each other, laughing, embarrassed yet relieved that someone had said it out loud.
Being an “accident” wasn’t something that bothered me. I wasn’t someone who thought much about such things, especially as a teenager.
I never gave it much thought for more than ten years. By the time it occurred to me again, I had become a Christian, aware now that God loved and valued me. So, by God’s grace, I’ve never felt like an accident.

A lesson we all need to get is that, just because something – or someone – was
unexpected, doesn’t mean it- or they – were accidental. God is never caught by surprise, so the unexpected can be experienced only by people (and angels, I guess – both holy and fallen).
We’re in the season of celebrating Someone who was humanly unplanned and largely unexpected, but whom God had planned for ages and ages.
There are so many lessons in Christmas. And here’s one I’ve never thought about. It’s this: If God would have His Son enter the world by way of the unexpecting and unprepared, why would those of us who were “unplanned” see ourselves as accidents? Jesus, who came with greater plan, purpose and mission than any other human, also came into the womb of a virgin, to an unprepared couple, into an ill-equipped birthing environment, even unwanted by some.

So let’s learn yet another truth from Christmas: people are not accidents; the
circumstances into which we are born says zero about our value or purpose. God gets to say what our value and purpose are, and He says we’re the whole reason He sent His Son.

Enjoy your Christmas!