For I know the plans

I have a childhood friend who grew up to be a missionary, an author and eventually the president of a large bible college.  He recently visited his extended family back in Alabama.  They were many...his tribe is small...they were less than middle class...he is very successful...they are close...he is far.  And he wondered...wondered what his life might have been.  Did he miss out?  Wouldn't it have been grand to be raised in the circle of extended family and know the many cousins and relatives that pepper the region we grew up in?  Shouldn't his children have had the benefit of relatives nearby even if the monetary benefits were less?  Wouldn't it be a blessing to have family close and culture that is warm and familiar?
And perhaps we all have questions...questions about the what-ifs of life....what if we had taken a different road, gone to a different college, chosen a different career, married a different person and on and on....we can never know for sure what might have been...but there is One who knows...
From before the beginning God had His plans...He laid out the course of our paths in eternity past...before we came to be in this natural world.  He has long had us on a trajectory of His choosing...laid out specifically to intersect with His Spirit at a particular place and time so that we might become born of Him and travel onward from that point to do great things in His Kingdom.
He knows the plans He has for us...for He sees the end from the beginning...and His ways are perfect.  His vision for us is His Son...His plan for us is to know His Son...His purpose is that His Son be shown forth in the earth...
I am so happy He had a plan for me and that He had one for you...so thankful that He has one still.  And the end result is all about Him and for Him...and in Him.  He is the Plan.