It's a wonderful life

One of my favorite movies is "It's a Wonderful Life." We watch it every Christmas. It's one of those feel-good movies. Atleast for me. Well, the other day, as I was driving home from Walmart, for whatever reason I started thinking about how long we've lived in Flower Mound. (20 years!) Then the "what if's" started to flood my mind. What if we never moved here? What if we had stayed in Richardson? What if Bob had never changed jobs? What if...? You can imagine all the thoughts that could now be unleashed. But instead of thinking, well, things could have been alot better, I began to think of all the people I would not have met. All the great people that are in my life now because we are here at this time. Now I understand that God could easily have placed people in our lives wherever we ended up. But all of a sudden, I realized God's amazing sovereignty. And there was a peace about that. It's comforting to know that when we make some life choices, God can be present in those decisions. He should be. He wants to be. But we don't always realize that at the time. Sometimes it's not until we look back do we see God's sovereign hand in our life. It can be a truly humbling experience.

In Tim's message a few weeks ago, he brought up Romans 8:28, where Paul says that "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." I've heard this verse many, many times before. But Tim commented that "all things" didn't mean all "good things" but rather good and bad. So now I'm thinking that this is great because I know I've made some bad decisions in the past. Not all my life choices have been good ones. I've messed up plenty of times. But I have a God who can take those poor choices and their consequences and turn them around for my good. As the rest of the passage reads, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." God knew what my life would be like before I was born. I can rest assured, knowing I don't have to answer the "what if's."