Spanish Blog: Before Time Began

   *Click here to read the story behind my Spanish Blog

 

There was a girl who fell in love.  She was not looking for love, but Love itself conceived of her, and pursued her, and slowly overpowered her, melting away all of her defenses and replacing them with gratitude.

 

 

As I have said in previous posts, the Creator God has captured my affections, and I am here in Peru as a response to the beauty and majesty of His great plan for the universe.  Apart from God’s work in my life I know that I am nothing, but my King has seen fit to include me in His conquest for the hearts of men—His marvelous plan to spread His kingdom over the whole world.  The Infinite has lifted the finite to walk alongside Him, learn from Him, and find its purpose in Him.  In this blog, I shall endeavor to share some of this journey—my journey with my King.

 

 

I have often heard the Christian life referred to as an adventure, a journey, a battle, or a friendship. But the description that has always seemed the most applicable to my life as a Christian is one that I hear used far less often.  When I think back on God’s working in my life from even before I trusted in Jesus as my Savior until the present, the best single word description I know of is a romance.  I love Joni Earickson Tada’s words, “He’ll say, shall we dance, and our endless romance will be worth all the tears I have cried!”  In context, Joni is talking about our relationship with our Heavenly Father when we reach heaven, however I firmly believe that He initiated our relationship long before that. 

 

 

You might expect that my journey began when I came to know the Lord for the first time, or even when I was born into this world.  But many verses in the Bible make it clear that my journey began before I was born.  The Lord assures me that He knew me before I ever existed in this world.

 

 

“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  - Romans 8:29-30

 

*See also Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:16; Ephesians 1:4; Galatians 1:15; John 15:16

 

 

Indeed, as I was reminded in a book I recently finished reading (Designed for Dignity, by Richard Pratt), God settled ahead of time the course my life would take.  He resolved before time began to have me hear and respond to His call, to declare me just and worthy through the righteousness of His Son, and to conform me slowly to become perfect like His Son.

 

 

Of course, these are all truths that I had to discover over time, for I came into the world, in August of 1986, hounded, like all people, by the imperfection and futility that sin works in us all from birth.  

 

 

Why didn’t my heavenly Father just perfect me from the beginning and raise me in His own celestial palace in heaven?  

 

 

Why did He ordain that I, whom He calls His beloved child, wrestle with sin and weakness—both my own and that of other people? 

 

 

These are questions for which I am still discovering the answers.  Perhaps, if you choose to continue reading my story, you may discover them with me.