Culley’s family was in that strange in-between time where the old house didn’t feel like home anymore, but the new one wasn’t home yet either. Boxes lined the hallway like a cardboard parade. Everyone knew their job. Dad handled the heavy stuff and kept a checklist on the fridge. Mom sorted and labeled boxes. Culley’s sister wrapped dishes in newspaper and stacked them in the right bins. Even Culley had a role: he carried lighter boxes to the garage and taped the bottoms so they wouldn’t bust. Nobody had to guess what to do, because they weren’t just “cleaning up”—they were moving toward a new place, together.

Two days before moving day, Culley’s friend Tim stopped by after school. He stepped over a row of boxes and stared at the half-empty living room like it had been robbed. “What happened in here?” Tim asked, confused. Culley shrugged and kept taping.

Tim wandered from room to room, picking up a roll of tape, putting it down, then lifting a marker like it was a strange tool from another planet. “Do you want me to help?” he asked, but his voice sounded unsure—like he didn’t know what “help” even meant in a house that looked like it was coming apart. Culley pointed toward the garage and said, “We’re moving across town. This all makes sense if you know what it is we’re doing.” Tim blinked, and Culley saw it click—without the big picture, you don’t know your part. But once you see the purpose, even a little box in your hands suddenly matters.

“…without the big picture, you don’t know your part. But once you see the purpose, even a little box in your hands suddenly matters.”

Now that we understand God’s grand plan a little better, we’re going to start exploring how the things we do in our daily lives help plug us into that plan. Because what you do matters, and when you see how you fit into the big picture and discover your part, your life becomes an exciting, meaningful adventure.

Coming Attractions

So, moving ahead in our quest we’ll be exploring some of the ways you can plug into God’s grand plan and pursue your own dreams while doing it.

Here’s where we’re going:

• Does God have a plan for your life? Hmmmmm…
• How do you know what you’re “supposed” to be doing?
• Does what you do now matter in God’s heaven on earth forever?
• Some common sense tips and life recipes for living the dream!

And remember—moving day will be here before you know it.

Wells sat at the kitchen table while his mom stirred a pot of soup, watching the steam curl into the air. He had been thinking hard about something all afternoon. “Mom,” he finally asked, resting his chin in his hands, “what color is love?” His mother smiled at the question and turned off the stove, pulling out a chair beside him. She told him love wasn’t just one color—it was all kinds of colors depending on how you see it. “Love can be red when it’s strong and brave,” she said, “like when someone protects you. It can be warm gold like sunshine when someone makes you feel safe. It can be soft blue when someone listens to you, and gentle green when someone helps you grow.”

Wells thought about this quietly, imagining love as a bright painting made of many shades blending together. His mom brushed his hair back and added, “But if I had to choose one color, I’d say love looks like whatever color your heart needs most at the moment.” Wells looked at her, noticing the warmth in her eyes and the comfort of her smile, and decided that love, at least right then, looked like the warm amber glow of the kitchen light and the feeling of his mother’s hand holding his.

What does God look like?

Well first of all, God isn’t an old man with a white beard up in the sky tossing lightning bolts down on us.

John 4:24 a 
God is Spirit…

God is Spirit—not a body, not a face, and not a shape. You can’t take a picture of Him. But remember, “spirit” doesn’t mean ghost or wispy fog. It means a reality beyond what we can see with our eyes.

John 1:18
No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

We can’t see God with our eyes but Jesus shows us exactly what God is like, and we can see that with our hearts and with the Spirit that God has put inside us.

John 14:9 b
…he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?

If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus in the Bible – not what he may have looked like physically, but what kind of person He was, and is — His love and compassion, His power and His mercy.

When God Comes To Live With Us

One day, God will once again live with us on earth. It’s possible that then we will be able to see more of His glory—more of what He “looks like.”

Revelation 21:1-5
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

Until then, we look at Jesus… and we see the heart of God.

Until then, we should be busy finding ways to plug into God’s grand plan right now, today. That means doing things and living our daily lives in ways that make our own dreams come true and God’s dream for us a reality.

That’s what we’ll start digging into next.

So everything will be hunky dory after Jesus returns and we live together in heaven on earth forever. Great. But what about now?

Why does God allow death and disease, earthquakes, fires, and floods, and horrible things to happen?

Special Connection

When God first set up His creation He gave Adam and Eve the job of taking care of it and of ruling “over all the earth.” God gave them power and wisdom, through their special connection with Him by way of His Spirit, to have control over the world and nature.

Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

But there was one condition God set:

Genesis 2:16-17
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Well, they disobeyed God and broke the condition He set. Although they didn’t die physically, the special connection with God that gave them the wisdom and power to be good rulers over creation died and was broken.

And so the world was broken as well, and still is. Without the special connection of God’s Spirit to give people the wisdom and power to take authority over the forces of nature, nature can and will cause harm and death, by everything from earthquakes to microscopic diseases.

God put the fate of His creation into human hands, and because humans broke it would take human hands to repair it. That’s where Jesus comes in, but we’ll get to that a bit later.

Authority

When Adam and Eve gave up their special connection with the Creator by their own choice they also gave up their rulership of the world. So the one who talked them into disobeying God was the one who took over that rulership—the “serpent,” the Devil.

Luke 4:5-6
And the devil, taking him (Jesus) up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

The Devil is the ruler of this world. He is the one who causes evil, death, and bad things to happen. To put it in legal terms, God is perfectly fair, He gave Adam and Eve rulership over the world, it was theirs to do with as they wished and God honored that. In turn, Adam and Eve gave their rulership to the Serpent and because it was theirs to give, God must honor that as well.

But God has also planned a way to get the rulership of the world back into the right hands, and that is through Jesus Christ.

For believers in Christ, the Spirit, power, and wisdom of God have been given back to us and we can once again overcome the powers of evil through the name of Jesus Christ and by His work, because He has reclaimed what Adam lost.

Matthew 28:16
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

The Devil’s authority over the world is only for a short time, and soon it will be completely gone forever. For now, we claim what Jesus has won back for us and wait patiently for the final victory.

1 John 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Next, we’ll talk about how human free will works and why that’s important in understanding why sometimes bad things happen to good people.

The new beginning for the world begins with the return of Jesus Christ—the literal, physical return of Jesus to the earth.

After God raised Him from the dead and He walked out of the tomb, Jesus spent many days in His new resurrected body, teaching His followers and being with them. When the day and hour came for Jesus to ascend into heaven, as they watched, two angelic messengers appeared and made a promise to His followers:

Acts 1:11
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

This isn’t a symbol with a hidden meaning; it will be an actual event. Jesus has been in the spiritual realm where God dwells for over two thousand years, as we count time, since He ascended into heaven. But He is coming back to the earthly realm for us—for you and me—one day.

Thessalonians 4:16-17
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (KJV)

1 Corinthians 15:52
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 

There are believers who will be alive at the moment this happens, and all believers of the Church Age who have died will rise from their sleep in the dust and ashes and from their graves, and we will all be changed and given new, immortal, glorified bodies in the “twinkling of an eye.”

This is God’s promise to us, and it will happen as surely as the sun comes up in the morning. But that’s only the “opening ceremonies,” so to speak.

The completion of God’s grand plan begins when Jesus returns for us, but it doesn’t end there. God has more to do after that, and we will be a part of what He has in store. We will be His helpers and managers in the amazing, everlasting age to come.

So, what comes next in this new beginning is what the Bible calls “the Kingdom.” We’ll look at that next.