A Supernatural Plan

The morning tasks behind me, I stared down at the pile of dishes from lunch waiting to be cleaned. A sigh escaped my lips and words spilled out of the depths of my heart, “Lord, I love being a stay at home mom. My children are such an amazing blessing. Being able to be here with them inside of these early years is something I will be forever grateful for. But sometimes, Lord, I long to do something grander with my days. Ugh…I feel like I just contradicted myself. How can I be grateful and still long for more in the same breath?”

My head came to rest on the cupboard beside me. “What is it you even want?” I asked myself with some measure of disgust.

A long silence followed.

“I just want to make a difference in this world,” I finally uttered.

As the words tumbled out, I heard a quiet whisper…as if He knew what I was going to say even before I said it and responded in the exact moment I asked.

“Abide in Me and I will bring the fruit.”

I recognized the words from John 15 and picked up a soapy plate as I chewed on them.

All three children were napping and the house was still. In between loads of laundry, I heard my phone beep. It was a high school girl from our youth ministry. She had a friend who couldn’t see any reason to keep on living and she wanted to know if I had time to sit down and talk with her.

I definitely had time.

Before long, I was ushering them into my kitchen, pouring coffee and settling in to listen to her story of heartache. As the words came, it was as if her heart unlocked and everything that was horrible came gushing out onto my kitchen table. It was a story of her dad’s unfaithfulness, her mother’s suicide, destructive coping mechanisms, her own struggle with thoughts of suicide…and then it was quiet, all the words spoken.

I gave the only thing that I had to offer- a relationship with Jesus Christ. With careful words, I told her of the life she was designed to live, the goodness of God that she was meant to experience. But how humanity betrayed the Creator and the door to sin was opened.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as I spoke of a love so powerful, so deep, that would cause God to give up all that He had to invite her back into relationship with Him. She wasn’t worthless and she didn’t have to try to prove that to everyone, including herself, anymore. God saw value in her. Despite every mistake she had made, His grace could redeem her life back to the one she was designed for. Her eyes locked on mine as she drank in every word.

Together, we bowed our heads and invited the Savior of the world into her life.

As I closed the door, I thought back to my frustrations from earlier of days filled with monotonous routine while my heart longed for adventure. But God had brought my heart’s desire right to my doorstep in the form of a broken girl who needed to hear the Gospel message.

A supernatural plan had been in motion behind the scenes the whole time.

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (NAS)

By Jamie Schulz, Creating Home Journal