I am a planner. I almost always have a Plan A, and I set my mind toward achieving it. Often, I will also think up a Plan B or even a Plan C, although disappointment, frustration, and occasional child-like tantrums sometimes ensue if I am forced to move from my seemingly superior Plan A to any plan further down the line. I like when Plan As work out and prefer when Plan Bs are not needed. So, perhaps that’s why when I heard someone say, “There are no Plan Bs in God’s kingdom, only Plan A, and God’s good and perfect Plan A cannot be thwarted,” it caused me to pause and flooded me with peace. I hadn’t really considered this truth much before, but I knew God’s word confirmed it. Job 42:2 says “I know [Lord] that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” Additionally, Psalm 33:10-11 says, “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the people. But, the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.” If His plans cannot be thwarted then there is no need for Him to make Plan Bs. His Plan A will stand firm forever.
This truth hit me afresh over the summer as we had the joy of going back to Georgia to spend time with Brooks’ biological mom—a woman who we love and now consider family. Although there is a tendency in those times to think of myself as Brooks’ “Plan B mom”, God’s words in the verses above reminded me again that it’s not so. From the beginning of time, long before I was even around to make plans, the Lord chose to write me in as Brooks’ “Plan A mom”. Through my human eyes, it can seem like there were many unplanned events and seemingly thwarted plans that led him to become our son. But, then I read God’s words and marvel that all the twists and turns and ups and downs are part of the humanly confusing but gloriously perfect road God paved for us. It was His Plan A from the start for Brooks to have the genetic makeup of his birth mom and his biological father. It was His Plan A to have Brooks’ first mom carry him, give him life, care for him, and make the loving choice to place him for adoption. And, it was His Plan A to knit Brooks into our family and make me his “Plan A mom” and he my “Plan A son.”
If today you find yourself feeling confused by the path you are on, frustrated by thwarted plans, or troubled by the thought of being part of an inferior Plan B, I pray you can find peace in the knowledge that there is a Great Planner who knows all, sees all, and has written a beautiful and perfect Plan A, which you are a part of and which will most certainly come to pass. Though it may feel, as you walk through twists and turns and navigate ups and downs, that your life is chaotic and aimless, I hope you will remember there is a loving God who created you just as He wanted you, who wrote the story of time, and who placed you in it for a specific purpose. He is working out His loving and perfect Plan A for your life, and His plan cannot be thwarted. If you want proof of that, just look to the cross. There, Jesus died to save you and to secure the success of His marvelous Plan A. Some say, Jesus’ coming was God’s Plan B—His backup plan since we messed up the original plan and forced Him to send Jesus to fix things. But, this is not so. “This [the cross] is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). The story of God’s love for us, told through the sacrificial action of Him becoming a man and paying the penalty of death we deserved on our behalf, reveals his true love and character to us in a way that no other story line could. This was part of His perfect Plan A—His “Plan A salvation story” for His “Plan A YOU”!
By Katie Miller
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