Our Divine Situator
Situation: a set of circumstances in which one finds one’s self
Situator: one who handles situations
The eleven members of my son’s family met up at Austin International Airport on Monday for our trip to Cabo. You should have seen my son wrangling us, with our many bags, up to the check-in counter. He was noticed and admired by others who found his “system” and his patience intact.
It was a “situation” when Braden’s girlfriend was misplaced by herself on the flight. I gladly switched with her so she could be by her man. As I cozied into my window seat, I started to catch up my journal that had been neglected for several days.
The gal beside me and I started to chat and we realized we were sisters in God’s family with much in common. Her twin girls who were celebrating their Christmas Eve birthdays (and their fiancées) were onboard the flight also. Those girls attended Regents School of Austin where my 18-year-old, Senior, Brennan attends. We have some of the same friends and her daughter’s pastor was the same as my children’s in Washington. We are both Christians which opened the door for talking about our Savior and friend, the Lord Jesus. We exchanged our info with each other.
She is the one who declared my son, “The Situator”. She noticed him situating us all in the airport and getting aboard our flight. A man across the aisle asked her husband: “Do you know Ryan Wuerch?” He said, “No, but his mother does, and she is right here.” That man was a partner with Ryan in one of his former companies and is a partner in one of his new companies. I met his wife who was sitting in front of us.
Please forgive my situation/situator discussion today. I can’t help myself. Ryan may appear to be a good situator of situations, but it all comes from our God, the ultimate in “situators” who has such grand and good plans for our lives. They are loving plans. But those plans aren’t always pain-free and convenient. But in the muck and mire of “situations”, He brings purpose and destiny to those situations. (Romans 8:18)
Jesus’ birthday celebration was just a few days ago. The story of Mary and Joseph’s excursion to Bethlehem in only one chapter of Luke. We see them arriving at the stable where their sweet little holy child was born in a manger. When we look at it that way, we miss the reality of what really took place.
In the middle of trying to deal with being future parents of the Son of God, Mary and Joseph had to go back to their ancestral town for the census. Let’s put that in perspective. If tomorrow the government made a rule that every U.S. citizen had to go back to the town they were from at the same time, it would be total chaos. Every plane, train, and automobile would be filled. Every hotel would be overflowing. Every highway packed full. It would be incredibly frustrating and remarkably inconvenient.
Now try navigating that chaos (aka situations) nine months pregnant. Then having her baby be delivered in a stable. Her situations weren’t convenient, but they were part of God’s plan. My son’s expertise in getting his family of 11, with luggage, through a maze of people to board a plane doesn’t hold a candle to God – the ultimate “situator” master-minding the Joseph and Mary situation. They trusted God. So should we – in our situations.
Fast forward to today when we wonder if God in His foresight and wisdom sets up times like this for us to understand that He purposely uses situations to prove He is the Master Controller.
God’s plans for our lives include situations. We can trust God because He knows best. Situations might be exactly what He uses to get us from Point A to Point B. He is always working for our good.
God’s grandiose ideas for Mary and Joseph AND their baby boy brought rewards and success. His ideas for us will merit rewards and success too when we place our trust in Him with our situations. Each situation is God’s convenient way of proving His faithfulness and love for us. In the grand scheme of things – why not trust Him for the best outcome?