God’s 2020 vision
By Jessica Brodie
I write this as 2019 eases to a close and the new year stands poised to begin… an oddly unbalanced place that fills me with both turmoil and excitement. My heart’s spinning full-throttle into the next year already, eager for the new books I hope to write, the new adventures I hope to take, the new callings God will put on my life that I can’t even begin to imagine. Yet my body and brain are still right here, planted firmly in the present.
Where was I a year ago? I almost can’t remember, truthfully don’t want to remember, so eager am I to put the old behind and move on to what I am certain are the far-bigger plans God has for me in 2020, the start of a new year and a new decade.
Did I feel this way a year ago, in such a hurry to say goodbye to 2018 and jump headfirst into 2019? Probably. And yet 2019 had its share of heartache, too. If I’d known ahead of time what was in store for me, would I have been so eager to shrug off the old like it was an unwanted coat?
The raw truth is none of us knows what this year or this decade will bring, and there’s something strangely exhilarating about that—knowing things could be the best or the worst ever, and I don’t have even the slightest vision of what even tomorrow will bring. Isn’t that scary and also immensely wonderful? Our culture has us believe we’re the ones in charge of it all—we’re in “the driver’s seat,” we decide what to make for dinner or what to buy at the store or what we wish to do that day—and yet we know we can’t even control our own bodies properly. At any moment, our hearts or our veins could shut down, and we’d have an intimate sense of our own frailty and weakness like never before.
Only by the grace of God and His marvelous design do we even have bodies, hearts, minds, and souls to begin with. Only by God do we have breath in our lungs and blood coursing through our limbs. Our very existence is entirely dependent on Him. And yet we so often live as though we caused ourselves to come into existence, as if our hard work somehow earned us our house or our health or our prosperity or lack thereof.
I think of a magnificent painting, emeralds and golds awash on the canvas, swirls of blue and violet bursting forth, all combining into one glorious image that seems to jump out of heaven and straight into being. Or the splendor of a lush garden, vibrant crimson and magenta blossoms mixed with the rich, earthy greens of life. Or even the soft beauty of a young child, kneeling in the summer grass, her tiny hands raised in adoration and delight.
All perfect, blissful reminders of heaven right here on earth, all glorifying God in their own good and right ways.
They remind me of the apostle Paul’s words to the early church in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (NLT).
We are His creations—His masterpiece! And when we choose Jesus, when we relinquish our illusion of control and instead give it back to the One who made it all, God, the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty and the All-Powerful, we are set free to embrace our divine path in the way God intended. We are created anew in Christ with one primary purpose: carrying forth God’s plans in whichever way that looks
That is my hope for 2020—that I will stop worrying about MY plans and MY year and focus only on what the Lord wants. I pray I can turn my spirit loose so it soars and swoops as it creates God’s masterpiece, both in me and in others.
God’s holy Kingdom is alive in me and in my brothers and sisters who are also created anew in Him. May my “2020 vision” be God’s vision, not my own.
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