None of us serve as God’s counsel, yet through wisdom, witness, and the teachings of God’s own Son, divine plans are revealed to us.

I had a friend who did everything right. Heidi kept the weight off, joined the gym, ate smart, drank little, and lived free of stress. And still she died of cancer at the age of 40. At her funeral, there was universal agreement that Heidi shouldn’t have died, that she’d earned the right to more years.

One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.

The famous graffiti artist known as Banksy pulled quite a stunt on the auction house Sotheby’s in 2018. As soon as his iconic image “Girl with a Balloon” sold for $1.4 million, it self-destructed—shredded by a mechanism he had hidden in the frame.

When I was growing up, one day a developer showed up and started a huge project—a block-long, 15-story building in our neighborhood of small, single-family homes. Construction crews were busy for months—and then one day, nothing. For years, the skeleton of a grand idea stood as silent witness to a dream gone awry.

I watched in amazement and admiration as five men worked one scorching summer day putting a new roof on the apartment building next to mine. The black tar and rubber made it 20 degrees hotter for them than the rest of us sweltering in 90-degree heat.

A reporter was interviewing the winner of a local triathlon in which contestants do a 1.5-kilometer swim, a 40K bike race, and then run a full 10K to the finish line. The winner was bent over, hands on his knees, panting, just moments after his thrilling finish when the reporter asked, “What does it take to win a triathlon?”

Confident in God's goodness, we ask forgiveness for our sins.

All things come from nothing and are borne to infinity. Who will trace these astonishing