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I can publish these verses with little comment! I’ve told you I’m enjoying The Passion Translation by Bruce Simmons, and today’s reading cast a familiar passage in a whole new light:
So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him. Having determined our destiny ahead of time, he called us to himself and transferred his perfect righteousness to everyone he called. And those who possess his perfect righteousness he co-glorified with his Son! (Romans 8.28 – 30, The Passion Translation)
Here’s what jumped out at me. I am…
- “Convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together…” Every detail?! Even the relationships that aren’t working, the health crises, the disasters? Doug Nuenke, U.S. President of The Navigators lost his home in the 2012 fire in Colorado Springs. When someone commented that God directed the fire around The Navigators’ Eagle Lake Camp (which had minimal damage), Doug responded that God also directed the fire that took his house. Doug’s favorite hymn remains “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”
- “Destined…to share the likeness of his Son.” Wow. How am I moving in that direction?
- Recipient of “his perfect righteousness.” “He…transferred his perfect righteousness….” is a lot more powerful, I think, than the usual, “He also justified…”
For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him. (2 Corinthians 5.21, The Passion Translation)
The statement “Convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together…” reminds me of similar concept where our lives are threads in a beautiful tapestry that is heaven. I don’t remember where I read that, but it certainly is something that fascinates me.
A good picture, Kathleen. Among others, I’m sure, Corrie Ten Boom, the Dutch lady imprisoned in Nazi Germany during WW2, used to say that when God weaves the threads of our lives into a tapestry, we often just see the back side, which doesn’t look like much. Eventually, maybe not until heaven, do we see the completed, beautiful picture.