The Blueprint God Never Asked For

In 2019, Habitat for Humanity volunteer Marcus Chen showed up at a build site in rural Georgia with his own architectural drawings. He'd spent weeks redesigning the floor plan, convinced his version was better. The site supervisor, a woman named Dorothy who'd overseen three hundred builds, gently set his blueprints aside. "Sweetheart," she said, "the family already has a home designed for them. Your job isn't to draft the plan. Your job is to swing the hammer where I point."

Marcus later admitted he'd been so eager to give something impressive that he nearly derailed what was already in motion.

David understood that impulse. He looked at his cedar palace, then at the tent sheltering the Ark, and thought, "I should build God a proper house." It was a noble idea — generous, even. But through Nathan, the Lord essentially said, "You will not build a house for Me. I will build a house for you."

And what a house — not of cedar and stone, but of lineage and covenant. "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me." El Shaddai, the God who needs nothing from us, chose to give everything to David: a dynasty, a father-son relationship, an eternal throne fulfilled ultimately in Christ.

Sometimes our grandest plans for God are gently set aside because He is already building something far greater than we imagined — and He's inviting us to simply take our place in it.