The Curator of Life

Seeing Meaning in Chaos.

A common challenge that faces us as humans is the seeming randomness of our experiences. Is there any rhythm to life? Can we have confidence that we aren’t mere victims but rather protagonists in the story that our lives are telling?

Every time I read through the Gospels, I can’t help but be arrested by the precision by which Jesus lived. There were no random events; from the seemingly ordinary events to the most gruesome ones, nothing happened by chance or coincidence.

The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

Matthew 26:24 (KJV)

This is quite obvious when we read the gospel according to Matthew. It is very common for us to find “it is written” in his account. Jesus himself says this, or a variant of it, at least 9 times in the gospels.

The phrase “it is written” is often used to refer to an Old Testament scripture, serving as a basis for a New Testament event. It is quite emphatic, another way to render that phrase is “it stands written”. It then follows that if it stands written, it can’t be changed and more importantly it will come to pass.

Notice for a moment that in our feature text, Jesus was referring to the events that will culminate in the most brutal conclusion of a man’s life. Yet for all that, Jesus says, it’s all happening according to plan. This is instructive, that Jesus looks ahead of a difficult situation, and in it He sees the hand and intentionality of God.

This also holds for the believer. We find the Psalmist making this clear to us:

You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Psalm 139:16 (NLT)

This is the reality of the believer; that every day of his life is recorded in God’s book.

That is, from the standpoint of God, our days are not empty canvasses for life to paint as it chooses, but rather, they are carefully programmed to birth forth as he has allowed.

Notice also he said, “…every moment was laid out before a single day as passed”. This is to say that not only is every day curated, God is so meticulous that, even moment by moment, His plan and tightly executed. The obvious question then is, how do we make sense of our difficult and distressing days?

I think the first place to start is to state quite clearly that God has a plan for our lives in Christ. That our lives will stand as written. God is not ‘figuring it out’ as He goes, and neither is He caught unawares by the things we face. We are not at the mercy of randomness.

Secondly, God desires that we know and are willing participants in the manifestation of that which is written. Oftentimes, our lives in manifestation do not seem to go according to ‘plan’ because we are ignorant or disobedient to God. We are out of sync. There is a part we have to play often through our obedience. We must commit to this, trusting Him for His intended outcome.

Thirdly, God can work all things according to the counsel of His will – and indeed, He does. This means that we can be assured that our experiences in God are not wasted. God is able to as it were bring back into focus His plan for our lives despite the distortions.

Fourthly, it is to live each day knowing that God is in control and that whatever a day brings, we are not left to our own devices to deal with it, but God is there alongside us, to lead, help, and guide us.

Lastly, it is to recognize that difficult experiences can be a written part of our lives. We see in the example of Christ, how that the most difficult ordeal of His life was the centerpoint of prophecy. It was all according to plan. This also means that our difficult experiences are not beyond our abilities to handle by the grace of God. When they do come, we will find that God’s grace is sufficient for us.

We live in a fallen world. A world of distortions, a world of contradictions. However, for the believer in Christ, whilst he lives out life in the context of a broken world, he is connected to system that can exert an modulating and overriding effect on the world. His life is planned meticulously by God and he can have full confidence that God will see to the manifestation to it.

God is not uninvolved. His hand is in everything. This is our confidence.