Psalm 71:5-9
A reading from the 71st Psalm, beginning at the 5th verse.
“For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.”
It was only after she died, that I learned from Donna’s family that, in a certain sense, the die had been cast for the basic direction that her life would go, already in early childhood, when LeRoy Lemke became her schoolhouse sweetheart.
This put her on a trajectory that, in time, brought her and LeRoy to a happy marriage which lasted for more than four decades; that brought five sons into her and LeRoy’s life; and that resulted also in many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who continued to bring much joy to Donna until she finally departed from this world at the age of 94.
Humanly speaking, we would probably all agree that it is an unusual thing for the pathway of a person’s life in this world to be, in a certain sense, plotted out so early, through decisions and commitments made already in childhood. For most of us, when we were children, teens, and even young adults, we still had no idea how our life would unfold.
Most of us changed our minds about things quite often, as we bounced back and forth between various choices in our earlier years. Early life for most of us was no doubt marked also by some bad decisions, which tended to limit our options, as well as by some good decisions, which allowed us to narrow in on what our life did eventually become.
From God’s perspective, however, his gracious plan for his children, chosen in Christ, is always at work in their lives, not only from their early childhood, but from the moment they came into existence – and even from eternity.
In the mystery of God’s eternal love for his church, St. Peter – in his First Epistle – addresses the believers to whom he is writing his letter as those who are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
And St. Paul, as he praises God for his incomprehensible mercy toward us in Jesus, says in his Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…”
Those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ’s forgiveness, who trust in God’s protection and guidance through all their trials, and who daily call upon the Lord in all their needs, are – in all these things – able to be comforted by the knowledge that God, in his immeasurable love, has already planned out their salvation, and everything that pertains to it.
He is with them every step of the way, making all these good and spiritually beneficial things happen for them, and in them, by his grace. Nothing that occurs in the lives of his saints is a surprise to God.
Even when something bad does happen, God is able to turn it to good, and to cause something good to come out of it.
To be sure, there is much mystery in this. There is much mystery in the questions we often ask in times of testing about why God does everything that he does, and about why he allows everything he allows.
The answers to such questions are usually hidden from us in this life. But what is not hidden from us is God’s promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
For Donna, this was how God was at work for her, and in her, from the moment she first came into existence. In her infancy she didn’t know what would be in store for her in her long life, but God knew.
God knew that he would bring her to faith in her Savior Jesus, and preserve her in that faith until the very end. And God knew the many ways in which he would bless her, as she rejoiced in his goodness even in her youth, and as God refined and sharpened her trust in him in times of grief and testing.
We can easily imagine the kind of storybook plans that Donna and LeRoy made for their lives together, when they were kids, as they wondered together what it would be like to grow up together and then to grow old together.
But that turned out not to be a mere childhood fantasy. It’s what really happened!
We don’t have to imagine many of the ways in which God worked out his plan for Donna, however. We know that she was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
She then first received from the Triune God the divine gift of the forgiveness of sins, and the divine gift of an eternal hope – gifts that she then continued to receive from God’s hand, through his Word and Sacrament, for the rest of her life.
We also know that God’s Word led her to confess the fullness of her faith when she joined the Lutheran Church, and committed herself to this congregation.
Here she was served by God in her regular reception – in faith – of his means of grace. And here she – in love – served God’s people in various capacities through the years.
Donna attended for as long as she could, brought to church by Gary and Sandy, and then by Randy. When she could no longer travel to church, I brought church to her, with visits to her at the facility where she lived that included a reading from Scripture and a meditation on that reading; and that included a partaking of the sacrament of her Savior’s body and blood.
She listened with great devotion, and communed with great reverence.
Donna knew then that her earthly life would likely not continue for much longer. But that did not frighten her, because she also knew that God was still unfolding the loving plan that he had been unfolding for her for 94 years. He would not forsake her when her strength failed.
And she knew that God would continue to unfold his plan for her and for her salvation until that day when she would close her eyes for the last time in this world, and then instantly open them again in the next, and see Jesus.
Dear friends, are you tuned in to the loving plan that God has for you? Are you learning the lessons he wants to teach you? Are you heeding the warnings he is giving you? Are you receiving the help and blessings he is offering you?
The pathway that your life is taking, and will continue to take, in this world, may be fairly clear to you. Or, that earthly pathway may be uncertain or even a bit chaotic.
Yet knowing what God wants to do for you, and work in you, for your eternal benefit, is more important than anything else. You will not always be able to figure out everything that he is doing, or exactly why he is doing it. But there are some things you can know for sure.
Whenever you hear the invitation of his gospel, you can know with certainty that this invitation is for you, and in faith you can accept it:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Indeed, Jesus died and rose again for you: so that your sins can be pardoned and washed away; and so that you – like Donna – can have an eternal hope. You can be certain of this.
This therefore can be your prayer and your song of faith – as it was Donna’s prayer and her song of faith:
“For You are my hope, O Lord God; You are my trust from my youth. By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You. I have become as a wonder to many, but You are my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Your praise and with Your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.” Amen.