God has a plan

Based on the book of Proverbs from the Bible, a beautifully composed hymn that we sing goes: In His time…/ He makes all things beautiful/ in His time…”
Though I have sung the hymn many times feeling its meaning, the impact of these words hit me even more intensely as I sat next to my ailing mother. We could hardly see her sufferings due to cancer.

We prayed hard, asking God for His mercy until suddenly it dawned on me that we were trying to impose our will and plan over and above that of God. Little did the group praying realise what the lyrics of the hymn are:

In His time/ Time for losing, time for gain,/time for joy and time for pain,/ every purpose under heaven has a time… While we must pray to God with complete faith and surrender, as Jesus reminds us time and again in the Gospels, we need to factor in God’s time and purpose. The hymn ends beautifully: There are times, there are days/ Weeks and months we cannot understand God’s ways/ If for years we fail to scan/ What is His eternal plan,/ we’ll remember that He can,/ all the time.

Father Dominic Emmanuel is a founder-member of Parliament of Religions.

He can be contacted at frdominic@gmail.com