God seems to have this habit of messing up my plans. He seems to prefer His plans to mine … funny thing, He seems to think He can act like God … This happens in many areas of my life, but at the moment I am thinking of this blog. Just when I had a nice little pattern going (I was going to write a well-planned series of posts on being made in God’s image – for His glory, of course) God kept interrupting my series by interjecting other topics !
The most recent interruption came in the form of the birth of my first grandchild, Sophie Grace, born yesterday. So of course I have to blog about it – after all everyone brags on their grandchildren, don’t they? And since she has been on the earth for a full day now, I can say without a doubt that Sophie is the smartest, nicest, cutest baby that ever lived …of course I haven’t seen her yet, but how could she not be? She’s my granddaughter!
All kidding aside, I find this a very moving experience. I once heard Ed Piorek say that our children are like arrows that God uses to get past our defenses and reach our hearts. It seems to be the same with our grandchildren. God is definitely using Sophie’s birth to speak to me.
Today was a busy day, full of necessary tasks that had been put off over the past couple of weekends. At the end of a long day, needing to draw near to God, I picked up my guitar for a few minutes of worship. I sensed such a hunger for the presence of God. I desire a season of refreshing like – no, greater than – the one that was poured out on Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship 15 years ago in 1994, greater than the Jesus People revival of the 1960s and the charismatic renewal of the 1970s, greater than the Hebrides revival of 1949-1952, greater than – well, you get the picture. I want my children and grandchildren – and the young adults that seem to have adopted Marion and me as spiritual mentors – to know God as He really is. There are so many wonders in our generation that are invented by human ingenuity (even though that ingenuity came from the hand of an infinitely wise and loving Creator God). I want my beautiful new granddaughter to know the wonders that point unmistakeably to God alone.
Sophie Grace is a beautiful name. Sophie is derived from the Greek sophia, which means wisdom. This evening when I was thinking about her name, I was drawn to 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
It sounds like a paradox, but true wisdom is to recognize that we aren’t wise at all. True wisdom is to humbly recognize our dependency on God, and our need for a Saviour to wash us, cleanse us and heal our broken, sin-shattered hearts. True wisdom is to recognize that we depend totally and completely on God’s grace – His amazing, undeserved kindness and generosity. That’s the kind of wisdom that I pray my granddaughter Sophie will cultivate as she grows in faith – true wisdom that leads us to the grace of God.
