Once, while I was still working at the factory, we had to manufacture windows for an imposing development close to Cape Town. The development consisted of 450 residential units. It was a difficult job, because the units came in ten different designs, each requiring different windows. What made it even more difficult, was the fact that some units were only on the ground floor, others on the first and second floor, another design on the second and third floor, while some appeared either on the second or the third floor.

Well, the above-mentioned sentence hardly makes sense to me, but that was exactly what that building site was like. You struggled to see where which unit was and which windows had to be used in what unit. And that was only the windows! What about the plumbers, builders, cabinet makers and all the other contractors that had to do something in each unit.

And the people on the site! What a crowd! You wouldn’t believe what the building site looked like. But in a way, as the units were finished one-by-one, the picture became clearer. It was really lovely, the different units one on top of the other. The architect had had a beautiful picture in his mind when he started drawing up the plans for the development. Now people enjoy living there and in the evenings they can watch the sun going down over Table Mountain.

The crucial point in the development was the building plans. Without the building plans they wouldn’t have been able to put in the foundations. For every contractor plans are the beginning and the end. You simply had to do what you had to do according to the plans. Some guys didn’t keep to the plans. Some didn’t understand the plans and did their own thing. And then, grumbling and complaining, the main contractor made them demolish or take out everything that was wrong and start from the beginning.

Everything had to be done according to the plans to make it fit and work right.

Each of us has a building plan for our lives. Do you know what the plan for your life looks like? What does the picture of the house that you are building with your life look like? What do your bricks look like? Are your building bricks money and fame? Or love? Are you building your life with bricks that care for other people? Building bricks that help others up from the gutters of life? What does your house look like? Does it match the plans that the great Architect drew up for you?

Hear what God wants to say to you: ¹⁶Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense.

May I ask again: Do you know what Jesus’ plan for your life is? How does your half-finished house compare to these plans? Do you have to demolish one part and start rebuilding a wall or two?

Jesus’ plan for each of us is not so difficult. What makes it hard, however, is that we don’t fully know what God’s plan is for us. We go to church and read the Bible now and then, but God’s plan? No, I don’t truly know.

Maybe you should sit down and listen.

Maybe you will hear and see God’s plan for your life.

Maybe a wall or two will have to be moved.

Scripture

Colossians 3:12-17

https://bible.com/97/col.3:12-17.msg

Reflection

Do you know Jesus’ plan for your life?

To what extent does your half-finished house match the plans?

Do you need to demolish and rebuild a wall?

Prayer

Jesus, I want to build my life according to the plan for my life that You have drawn up. Please help me to listen to You and to obey You, so that I don’t have to demolish my house eventually because I didn’t listen to You. Amen.