Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Many Christians question the plans of God for their lives, especially when major suffering is involved. Why did God give me these terrible, evil, and undependable relatives? Why did I have a stroke and lose the functions of my limbs, and God expects me to be thankful to Him? Why did my son commit suicide? Where was God then? Why did our house burn down in the disaster but our neighbour’s home was fine? I am sure you can think of many more events that Christians go through that seem like God has abandoned them. Like many of you, I do not have the answers to these difficult questions except to say as Job did when he was in the middle of his trial that Satan provoked. Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at the last He will take His stand upon the earth.

I was looking back upon the events of my life, and I asked God to show me when He was there along the way. My heart was opened up to an interesting point of view. I reckon I could say I was seeing it from God’s vantage point. When I was five years old, my mom, baby sister, and brother had escaped the brutality of my father’s inability to be a man of nurturing character. At the end of that long journey, when we were safe and far away from my father’s vicious outbursts of insanity, I found myself living on a farm in Northern Ontario. It was my grandparents’ farm, and I was free to play in the fields, eat wild strawberries and raspberries, and grab a piece of rhubarb that was as tall as I was. Playing alongside the shallow creek was a place of adventure to heal the pains that were lodged in my soul. Thank God, He becomes the Father to the fatherless. Psalm 68:5 A father of the fatherless and a judge and protector of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.

If we could rise a bit and see the terrain and landscape from God’s point of view, we would be able to see a young girl who was a couple of years younger than me, two miles further down the creekside, playing and imagining her little girl’s dreams. Her name is Monique Levesque. What God could see, and Monique and I could not even imagine, was that approximately fifty-plus years later, we would meet on the other side of the country at a church in Kelowna, British Columbia. Not only did Monique become a good friend, but she also became an integral part of my life.

My blog is written and posted in three languages, and Monique translates my articles into French. She also translated all the articles that would make up the French book Le Tiroir De Débarras. God saw us way back then in the fields of Northern Ontario and said, “I will get these two kids collaborating on devotional material that will meet the needs of the French community.” Oh, how true it is, our ways are not His ways. Isa. 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. What God saw in us while we played children’s games was a plan He set into motion so that His purposes would come to fruition. I have no idea what further plans God has for Monique and I, but I am at peace that He will fulfill what He has written down about our lives.

Another memory that God showed me, as to how He has been with me my whole life, was that when I was a teenager, my friend Scott Moore was being told by his mother that she did not want him hanging out with me because she felt I was a bad influence on Scott. Fast forward a few years, and Scott and I meet up in Kelowna, British Columbia. The interesting thing that Scott’s mom did not know was that I was not a bad influence on him. On the contrary, Scott was a good influence on me. Scott has also become important in my life in that he helps me out graciously by editing my weekly blog articles. Scott’s mom did not have God’s view on how we would bring healing words and devotional thoughts to the Christian community. God looked down on a couple of scruffy hippies and said, “I will bring them together in Christ, and they will bring honour to my name when they are older.” I am sure when God sees Scott’s mom as she is now with Him in glory, He hugs her and says, “Everything is working according to plan.”

I have seen more of God’s plan for my life in the way he brought my friend and book editor into my life. As we look from a higher distance and take in the map of North America, God saw Jami Rogers, who lives in Michigan, raising her family and working through the hardships of her life. While I was in Kelowna, God had a plan and said, “I will bring these two writers together, and they will work towards getting quality material put into blogs and books. As my book editor, Jami has also become a best friend and fellow collaborator in making sure my books are well presented. Clay Kessler, my publisher, was introduced to me by a mutual friend, and again God’s divine plan was moving forward. Clay has more than supported me as a book writer. His belief in what I write has caused him to go the distances with me and now has created the website called sirnorm.com, where the accumulation of all we do is now combined and available to all. God’s view is of a higher plane.

As I look around and see the guilty, the criminals, and the evil systems seemingly getting away with their offences against humanity, I, too, wonder where the justice is, and if God is doing anything about the carnage taking place on this fecal crater of a planet. Perhaps the burden of Habakkuk is upon all of us, and we are having a hard time seeing past it. Hab. 1:3 Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4 Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Habakkuk’s view could be the outcome of our final thoughts on the events we are living through. However, God has a plan for each one of us despite the hard circumstances we might be living in. Maybe you are wondering if God knows you even exist. Then you might want to ask Him to show you how He has been with you your whole life. Ask the Lord to show you His fingerprints that have been upon your life to this day.

The above events that I wrote about are a few of the things God showed me when He had been there right besides me through all my good times and sufferings. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness towards us.