His Ways Are Higher Than My Ways

This is straight out of The Book. 

Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

This reminds me of the tapestry illustration I learned long ago.  I love the imagery of a beautiful intricately woven design of a tapestry which God can see from above as it was meant to be seen and which we see from the underside with all the varied strings hanging that may be knotted and certainly not looking beautiful.  And just recently Julie Armstrong spoke at a women’s event and gave us all a puzzle piece and noted how we may not like our piece but all the pieces fit together to make a beautiful picture.  God’s ways are so much higher and his plans so much bigger than our minds can imagine. 

So, I know when my plans and dreams don’t work out the way I think they should that He knows a better plan and a better dream for me to have.  Too often I have seen where my plans are too short sighted or don’t allow for all the deviations of all the other people on the planet.  C.S. Lewis wrote this, “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak…We are far too easily pleased.” Indeed.

Besides, God has much bigger purposes in mind than I do.  I am weighed down by the cares of school and cleaning and to-do lists.  While I thrive in an environment where I can help keep details organized and thing running smoothly, God seems to thrive in the interruption of our plans to accomplish his purpose. 

Believing this as truth also flows out of the statement that God is sovereign – He can see the end from the beginning and he can work in multiple hearts in multiple ways and can see the plays way out in advance and therefore moves according to his purposes so that his will is accomplished.  I can trust that His purpose will be accomplished and I can only pray that I will be part of it each day of my life.

I once wrote a song that has these words in the chorus….

“Lord I trust you to lead me. I know you see things that I just cannot see. 

I know you know things that I just could not believe if I knew them now.”

It is so true.  We don’t have the capacity to imagine the workings of God – how much he intends for our lives to be.  And I am certainly not talking about our fame in the eyes of the world.  I’m talking about what he has for us to be and to do and the impact of our knowing him on the lives of those around us.  His plan is so much more than the mundane that we make it out to be.  Often, we don’t even see what He is truly accomplishing. There’s holiness in the ordinary.