God's Engineering

I once worked at a Logistics company that enabled me to visit various car part suppliers gaining first hand insight into the workings of their business. Each supplier played a pivotal role in supplying the car manufacturer with its respective finished component for a particular model car. Based on the (JIT) - Just-in-time supply chain principle, the ordering and manufacturing of each part was calculated to an exact science; down to the time it was needed at the respective plant. One only truly saw the "big picture", when one stood on the production line watching each part fit in its allotted place. Large panels of steel when pressed into moulds took on the more familiar recognizable frame. A car began to take shape, piece by piece. Trials and modifications preceded the final sign off. Each design targeted a particular market, filling and fulfilling consumer demand and environmental standards. It all began with an idea, a vision and a model.

The Business Dictionary defines "Logistics" as, "Planning, execution, and control of the procurement, movement, and stationing of personnel, material, and other resources to achieve the objectives of a campaign, plan, project, or strategy." Fundamental to Logistics is to deliver the right product at the right place at the right time at the right cost. The supply chain is threatened if any of these elements are out of kilter. There are stages and processes to adhere to and follow, from the birth of an idea, the design, the manufacture and the delivery of the finished product. So too is it with us. The plan that God has for each of us, begins with His idea, His plan, His design, His designated time and His designated placement of the vessel, the product which over time He moulds and shapes into the 'finished product.' Yes the costs are high, but the rewards have eternal value because the price has been purchased not with gold and silver and anything corruptible, but by the crucified body and shed blood of the Lamb of God.

Jeremiah 29:11, God says, "I know the plans I have for you!" These plans were made long before we existed. "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Psalm 139:16. Just as Gods brooding Spirit hovered over a dark mass and spoke the earth into being, He did the same for us even in our unformed state, God saw us, and He birth in us His DNA, fashioned and created us in His likeness. God recognized our potential; He distinguished us as carriers of His Purpose. Isn't it fascinating that each day He lends us has already been accounted for, even though they have not even arrived? He knows our end from our beginning, chiefly because He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the end. No one knows us more intricately as our designer does.

But the timeline between the blueprint and the finished product works differently. It requires Gods logistics; it works on His time-table, His Will and His delivery. Sometimes it's hazy and we can't quite define His will for us. So many occasions in Scripture we read of how the plan and the actual circumstance did not always make sense. David was summoned to be King, but first had to live out his days as shepherd boy, until the appointed time had arrived. Joseph was disowned by his family and thrown into a pit, before God positioned Him for pre-eminence in Potiphar's palace. Saul, (Apostle Paul) was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, when Gods plan for his life literally threw him off his high horse and temporarily blinded him until His sight and new found purpose were restored.

These were ordinary folk, singled out for Gods work. Whatever God begins He will finish, He, who has begun a good work in you, is faithful to complete it. We are a work in progress with each segment planned well in advance. Each day we motion closer to where He has called us, positioned us and purposed for us to be. When we come to our place of purpose, the big picture will be revealed, then it will all fall into place, how each struggle, each hurdle, each scar and each battle were essential key elements in Gods supply chain of perfecting His Design for our lives!