Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, January 14, 2024
This was the sight that met me when I hustled into our neighborhood drugstore on a quick errand last week. I stopped, brow furrowed, and turned to our favorite employee who was greeting me from behind the counter.
I flung my arm out in the direction of the sign and asked, “What???” He said, “Oh, those are things waiting to be restocked.”
“But,” I persisted, “why, ‘No Piano’?” I could have told him that of all the things I expected and hoped they would stock for my convenience and purchase, a piano had never made the list.
He laughed. “That should say, ‘No Plano.’ That means there’s no plan for the set-up.” I nodded, still a little mystified by the message, but charmed by the thought of drugstores disillusioning people who were shopping for a keyboard.
But the message, which apparently wasn’t meant for me, was not about pianos but plans, or the lack thereof.
And yes, that makes me think of God.
God never looks at us, throws His hands up in the air, and shrugs, “No plans.”
I believe He always has a plan.
In the beginning, in Genesis 1, He has big, planet-sized plans. We watch as He unfolds His creation and our beginning.
When we mess up His plans, He runs in with a rescue-restoration plan. (See Genesis 3 through Revelation 19 for details.)
When Eve and Adam chose to distrust Him and sin, He had a plan. A rescue-restoration-redemption plan. It’s a plan that required blood, sweat, and tears. And years. And a cross.
I believe God always has a plan because He always has a purpose – bringing us, His children, Home. I believe His purpose is fueled and stoked by love.
If we ever personally feel low on plans and purposes, I think God is most happy to include us in His – in fact, I think that’s His plan.
We love because He first loved us. (1 John 3:16 NIV)