INFUSION 2013
29 May 2013
At INFUSION, one of the students from Campus Ambassadors in SUNY Oneonta, performed the following poem she had written. Natalie Newton had the audience (including myself) hanging on every word and phrase. You can find her performing it on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSRAh4zlAhA&feature=share.
GOD HAD A PLAN
God had a plan.
From the foundation
From the beginning
When in his palms
He formed a man.
And that man
Would stand in his
image,
Every part of him
Perfectly fitted.
And from the very
first minute,
He was called good.
God called him good,
And yet he understood,
What would happen tomorrow
Wasn't going to be
good.
He had created his bride
And gave her a ring,
But he already knew
What tomorrow would
bring.
His plan was teeming
With the intricate
works
Of a creative King.
He already knew the
cold winter
He had to take us
through
Before we hit spring.
He knew the choice she would make,
The fruit she would
take,
That bond that sin
would break,
He knew the separation
That would make his
heart ache –
The man who would die
For the whole world's
sake,
The church that would
rise up
And cause evil to
shake.
Beloved make no mistake,
He knew all this,
And yet he thought she
was great.
He probably even
smiled,
Because at least for a
little while,
Man was yet to have to
be
Reconciled to the
creator,
And sin had yet to
defile,
The beautiful creature
to whom
He found it all worthwhile.
And when that all came to pass,
When man began to
stumble
Don't for a minute
think
That God's plan
crumbled,
Because from the moment
He even thought of
man,
He had a plan.
Not the kind of plan that
You and I make for
vacation –
God wanted
conversation,
And knew he had to rid
us
Of the infection
That gave us
isolation,
And all that hindered
our restoration.
He knew he'd take
The man in his hands
Through the darkest
night,
Through a war that
He knew He had to
fight,
The Son he would have
to sacrifice.
When he made his plan,
It wasn't bound by
perfection,
It was based in
affection.
When God planned,
He dreamed of love –
The same love that man
Had become deprived
of,
The kind of love that was lifelong,
For the one thing he
wanted all along.
He came for our heart,
The part of man that
began
To beat from the
start,
With the thud thud
through every part,
Of our anatomy
And yet feels every
emotion –
He came for heart
The same heart
He had in the
beginning.
But he gave men this voice –
He wanted them to have
a choice,
The option to rejoice,
or not
And from the choice yes
On the ballot of
salvation
Would come love He
couldn't have achieved
By any motion to
coerce,
The kind of love that the
devil could not reverse,
Because all the while
He teaches us how to
love
Perfectly, enormously,
wonderfully -
So this plan –
This story He is
writing,
As he writes –
As the words etched in
His heart hit paper,
Scriptures you
hold
Are love letters to your soul,
From the God who wants
to make you whole,
To a heart He chose not
to control,
He had planned His reply,
To win back the heart
of His bride,
With a cross on which
He chose to die,
And let her decide,
To love Him for all
her life.
So from the beginning
God was planning
And you have a piece in this great story,
That ends with an
inheritance
To all the King’s
glory.
But I won't lie –
The middle is speckled
with pain,
Sure, sin has a habit
of creating these chains,
That sprain and strain
and stain and wane.
We're all coming from
a place
Where sin had domain.
Yes, there was a winter to be had,
A night to suffer to
which He'd be glad,
If He could know that
pain wasn't to last,
And that all of the
struggle
Would be a thing of
the past.
But the relationship forged
In the deepest of
measures,
Would lead to a
blessing
With the greatest of
pleasures.
But like a child who reads the last pages first,
To make sure the
characters
Make it through the
very worst,
In the end of God's
plan
We all will be
reimbursed.
The final point I want to make to you,
Is that there is
nothing you could ever do,
That could cause God's plan to fall through,
No matter how we trip and fall,
The mistakes we regret
Neither big nor small,
Could ever stall
The plan in store
God has for us
all.
Because from the beginning,
What he could see,
Was the story
He'd write about you
and about me,
When man ran away and decided to retreat,
He was thinking of you
–
And He was thinking of
me,
When he started to pick up all of the debris,
He was thinking of you
–
And he was thinking of
me.
When he was hanging on a tree –
All he could see was
you – and me.
So the God of the universe has sent out His invitation
He's already given us His presentation
Bride are you ready to take part in the celebration?
Natalie Newton
