God's Weaving Of Our Lives

God’s Weaving of Our Lives

Isaiah 55:8,9 says: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

That’s a good summary of what we see in our lessons this morning. What I hope to show in reviewing the lessons we read is the difference between God’s Plans and how God works and how we tend to look at things.

In preparing this week, I was reminded of a story Corrie Ten Boom told in her book “Reflections of God’s Glory.” Corrie, if you did not know, was a Dutch Christian imprisoned by the Nazi’s during WWII for helping Jews escape the Holocaust.

In the book, it recorded her teaching about how God looks at things from a very different perspective than we do. In giving a talk, she would slowly unfold a cloth with hundreds of strings pulled through it and tied in knots. It all looked very random and didn’t make much sense, comparing it to how we can often see our own situation in life as a tangled mess.

We sometimes question God about what is wrong with us, why we sin or falter, or why He has allowed bad things to happen to us. But in reality, we have a limited perspective of God’s plan, and what He is doing in our lives.

Corrie would then turn the cloth around to reveal the other side. It was a beautiful tapestry of a crown of gold with multicolored jewels. This is what God sees. From His perspective, we are a masterpiece. When our life is the messiest, we need to trust God the most.

But both during the best times, and during the darkest times in our lives, God is present, weaving a beautiful tapestry.

The Triumphal Entry, and the Passion Story, when you look deeply at each, both reflect well how Man and God look at the same thing differently. From man’s perspective, when you consider it, the Triumphal Entry seems to be one of the clearest great celebrations in the Bible. Not that it is the greatest event.

The Birth of Jesus was greater and of course our Christmas celebration these days is greater. But, at the Birth of Jesus itself, there weren’t too many people involved. Mary and Joseph, a few shepherds, and a few years later some wise men. The first Christmas was almost a secret time.

The Resurrection of Jesus was greater, and our celebration of Easter is the MOST IMPORTANT event of the Church Year. But the first Easter was a terrifying time for the disciples. There was some joy, but some of the disciples were very afraid, they didn’t understand, and some didn’t even believe.

If we are looking for a great day of celebration in the Bible, where people know what we want to celebrate, and it comes true here and now – then Palm Sunday might be the biggest party in the Bible.

Palm Sunday right before the Passover, when the population of Jerusalem, not to different from Ventnor, swelled from 55,000 to about 180,000. The city was crowded with pilgrims excited about their faith. Many people had been watching and waiting for years for this demonstration on behalf of Jesus.

All through the gospels the crowds were calling for Jesus to step up and be recognized as King and Messiah. And on Palm Sunday, Jesus finally allowed them to recognize him as just that.

‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

The people wave palm branches, the sign of royalty. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, as Zechariah said he would 550 years prior to this.

You can see the enthusiasm of the people laying their cloaks down. If you put your coat in front of someone, you are offering your entire being to His service. So, there was joy, there was celebration among his followers. The word went out like wildfire across the city. “The prophet from Galilee is being recognized as the Messiah.”

And Jesus allowed it. When the religious leaders criticized it, and complained, Jesus said to them, Have you never read, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.”

This was the celebration in the Bible that could have had a brass band! This was the celebration in the Bible where fireworks would have fit right in! Because this the celebration that was “here and now.” Not sometime in the future. Jesus is King! Let us celebrate and acclaim him King.”

The point being, of course, that they were wrong. Not wrong in saying that Jesus was King, but wrong in thinking he would be an earthly king like Herod or David. They were celebrating thinking God was finally doing things their way, Their plans, but of course they couldn’t see God’s plan, his intricate weaving.