But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
Galatians 4:4,5
There are times in this life when all you can do is get ready. You can do all the planning and then do everything you need to do to get ready. You do all the preparation and then you just have to wait.
Vacations are like this. The weeks before you excitedly get out all your cloths, bathing suits, shoes, and even underwear. They sit on the foot of your bed for several days until the suitcases are pulled from the closet and attic.
Then there’s the fateful day that you’re leaving. All the suitcases are piled into the car in just the right jigsaw puzzle combination, not wasting a single square inch. And then you wait again until it’s time to leave. You pile into the car, and you wait again until the car is started. And then you’re off.
Yes, there’s planning. There’s prep work. There’s all sorts of activity, but you haven’t really left yet.
It was that way with Seabiscuit’s team. They came up with a plan to beat the superior War Admiral in that famous match race. The plan was to do the unusual from the start. They would go out fast at the start and then let War Admiral catch them by holding Seabiscuit back.
Then, at just the right moment, they would let Seabiscuit run his heart out. They turned him lose and he went on to win by four lengths. The movie Seabiscuit [1]shows how, at just the right moment, they let Seabiscuit run the race of his life.
There was a just the right moment with God and his saving us too. When that right time came, Jesus came to earth from heaven. God’s set time wasn’t some alarm clocking just going off by itself. It didn’t just come crashing down by accident. It wasn’t something just falling off a log either. It was a planned moment in time. It came at just the right time in the history of the world.
Everybody it seems knows John 3:16. But the thought doesn’t end there. God continues to speak to us about loving us and sending Jesus.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:16
There was a purpose for this timing. For this event. And what was it? Why would God go to all the trouble and planning since before the foundation of the world[2]?
If I were God, I wouldn’t have waited so long. I would have put the spiritual petal to the metal. I would have pushed and pushed. I would have been impatient and, in the words of where we live, we’d “get ‘er done.”
But aren’t you glad that I’m not God? I’m so impatient while he’s both eternally powerful and patient. He’s never in a rush. He’s never behind schedule. He’s never trying to make up for lost time.
When, in God’s plan, the proper time had fully come[3], Jesus is born. God’s Christmas story that he wrote out and planned came to earth. Jesus arrives at just the right time. In just the right place. In just the right way.
But why did he wait? Why didn’t he just save the world right after Adam and Eve sinned? After all, he told the serpent his plan to “crush his head” by the heel of the woman’s seed[4]. There was no surprise. His plan was out in the open.
And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:10 NLT
God’s very, very interested in saving us. But there’s more to it than that. He’s got bigger fish to fry. He’s got a much bigger plan in place. He wants to not just save people, but to restore his authority over all of creation. He wants to bring back everything to the way it was before sin entered the world.
Yes, he wants to repair you and me. But it goes much farther than that. He not only wants to restore, but he wants to redeem us. He not only wants to bring us back to the place before sin, but he wants to take us to an altogether new place.
A new heaven and a new earth. A place where he will wipe away every tear. No more death. No more crying. No more pain. Everything old will be gone for good.
Now that’s just the right moment worth waiting for.
Comments