Does God have a personal plan for you and me?  I hope so, because being a part of the collective isn’t much fun.    

My wife and I were down on the Texas gulf, when we decided to try deep sea fishing.   We knew nothing, but the captain supplied the boat, the bait, the tackle and the experience. 

We boarded with 40 or so other naïve fisher people and then cruised the gulf until the captain pulled near to shrimper.  Just beneath the surface, you could see scads of big fish in a frenzy over the shrimp. 

We were told to line up on one side of the boat, shoulder to shoulder, and drop our lines.   Immediately someone screamed, “Fish on!”  The fish fought – frantically swimming to and fro to escape. 

The line with the fish, became quickly entangled with the rest of ours.  Oh my – what a mess.  30 of us spent the next 30 minutes disentangling.   Meanwhile another snagged a fish, and the remaining 10 fisher folk snagged each other. 

It became clear that only the first one to hook a fish was going to catch a fish.  The rest of us sat on the deck and deknitted our lines.

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I hope God has a better plan for us than that!  Turns out He does! 

Paul wrote, “For we are his creative work…” (Ephesians 2:10)  

The phrase “creative work” was translated from one superb Greek word, “poiema.” Other translations have rendered it, “workmanship.”  We are God’s workmanship.  That sounds nice but it fails to capture the full breadth of the word.

“Poiema,” is where we get our English word, “poem.”  We are God’s poetry.  Other Greek literature of the day applied this word to a statue, a song, an architectural masterpiece and even a painting.   Which is to say that we are God’s works of art.

I love to create using words and music and though I have written over 400 songs, no two are even remotely alike.  Each has my unique stamp to it.  Such is the nature of art.

And so, it is with us – we have been uniquely and distinctively created by God who regards each of us as His masterpiece.  

And in our uniqueness, He has given us a unique purpose.  The passage goes on to say that we have “been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them.”

God has a special and unique plan for each of us based, on how He has crafted us. 

I think back to the book of Acts, where Paul referenced King David in a message.  He said, “For David, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, died, was buried with his ancestors…”  Acts 13:36

God had a specific plan and purpose for King David to serve in relation to his own time, which the King carried out in his life.

So evidently, long ago, God said something like that about David.  “I have a plan for you, a specific purpose for you to fulfill in your life.  And though this plan will intersect with the plans I have for others, it will never become entangled with or thwarted by them.”  And David fulfilled God’s plan.

I recently went deep sea fishing again, BUT this time, my son-in-law chartered a smaller boat.  Just family!  The cap took us out to a school of blackfin tuna.  One at a time we took our turn in the “fighting” chair.  I landed two – no muss no fuss – and not a single tangle. 

When the individual is considered – good things happen and that is the way God does it.  In His sovereign power and wisdom, He manages the circumstances of our lives and accomplishes through us the purposes He has for us. 

I don’t understand how He does it, but I sure am glad He does. 

A PRAYER: Lord help me more each day to understand who you created me to be and what you have created me to do. 

This has been Jim Johnson with pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All Scripture references are from the NETBible ®