When We Allow God to Fill in the Blanks

One of my friends recently posted that she was well underway with filling in the blanks on her 2019 calendar. She must accomplish this feat because she has three children and with getting them to school and to their music and voice lessons, sports practices and games, as well as her own responsibilities as a wife, businesswoman, and mother, it is essential. I recall those times with my children and though I’m distant from those schedules now, I know them when I’m caring for my grandsons in Austin. Their mother is so on-point for me. She provides me with their full-of-activities calendars and she includes phone numbers of teachers, coaches, and friends that I can call if something’s just not right.

I’m thankful for my iPhone calendar that I’ve learned to make an entry for important dates and appointments. Then there are blanks to be filled in on forms. Who really enjoys going to a medical appointment and having to fill in all those questions? We like it when we’ve completed forms, outlines, and calendars. It feels so good once all those blanks are filled in. All the gaps closed. All the details disclosed. And all the why questions answered to our satisfaction.

But that’s not the way life is. Some questions should be blank. They just don’t have a right or wrong answer. That’s the way God wants it. Our all-knowing God not only allows us to NOT know all the answers but He actually designed life to be that way.

Without blanks in our lives, we would have no room for Him to enter in and write His answers. For Him to become the WAY when there is no way. For Him to be the TRUTH when lies are consuming our thoughts. For Him to be the LIFE He’s designed for us to have on the other side of our insistence to control our stories and be the author of them. Our God is not forgetful. He doesn’t make mistakes. He allows spaces and blank places. He leaves room for providential circumstances and surprises and His perfect plan to be working in our lives. If we had all the blanks filled in, we would explain away God’s part in our story. God doesn’t want to be explained away. He wants to be invited in. He wants us to make room for His additions to our story.

Remember just a few days ago when we heard the “No room” part of the Christmas Story? God was told, “There is no room,” and He turned an ordinary stable into an extraordinary place of worship. “No room” became a message for us to take to heart daily. When there is “No room” for God’s intervention, then we fill our rooms and spaces with stuff. But when we allow Him to step in, He creates “moments of amazing grace”, divine interventions and makes circumstances be certain God-winks.

Are the blanks and unanswered questions of your life providing space for God, the way-maker, the chain-breaker, pain-taker, the soul-saver, sin-forgiver, hope-giver Who provide the answers?

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your steps (will fill in the blanks).”