God’s wonderful plan 

 Have you ever watched a chess grandmaster play concurrent games? It’s quite something to witness. A circle of tables is set up and around them sit dozens of players from all walks of life – enthusiasts, club champions, curious onlookers who fancy their chances. Each board is different. Each position is unique. Each game develops its own challenges and traps. Then, in walks the grandmaster – calm, unhurried, seemingly unconcerned. They stroll from board to board, glancing for only a second before making a move with complete confidence. They don’t linger. They don’t panic. They don’t second-guess. And while the rest of us might struggle to manage one game, they are somehow overseeing 20, 30, and even sometimes, 50 simultaneously. 

They see patterns we don’t see. They anticipate moves we can’t imagine. They hold the whole picture in view. 

In this Christmas season, I find myself remembering that God sees the whole board. We see one square…one problem…one moment in time. But God sees every piece, every possibility, every life, every nation, every century of history – all at once. Our plans can fall apart quickly or disappoint when they don’t turn out the way we had anticipated. But God is moving the divine plan forward with perfect wisdom, even when we cannot see it. Christmas speaks with clarity. It invites us to zoom out and see a bigger, deeper, hope-filled plan – God’s wonderful plan for the whole world. 

We live in a time when so many fear the future. Hope feels thin on the ground. People long for peace, for stability, for meaning, for a plan for a better world that doesn’t suddenly change with the wind. That beautiful line from the much-loved carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, rings true: ‘The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.’ Our hopes and our anxieties find their answer — not in our plans, but in God’s. 

We come into the season with our hopes and fears. For some, being home for Christmas is joy. For others, the ache of loneliness presses in. Families carry grief, empty chairs at the table, and memories that feel sharper at this time of year.

Ancient words coming to life 

Hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, God’s plan was revealed through the ancient prophets of Israel. Time and again, God’s wonderful plan is foretold in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah’s world wasn’t so different from ours in the present day. Nations were in turmoil. People were fearful. There were divisions in society and economic worries. People longed for a better future. Into that world, God gives Isaiah a vision: a way of seeing beyond the headlines, beyond the chaos, beyond the fear. 

‘In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established… and all nations will stream to it,’ announced Isaiah (Isaiah 2:2).  

He ‘sees’ (2:1) something breathtaking: A new community. A home. A place where God dwells at the centre, and where all nations gather. It’s as if God opens the prophet’s eyes to see not what is, but what will be. 
 
Christmas has this effect too. We come into the season with our hopes and fears. For some, being home for Christmas is joy. For others, the ache of loneliness presses in. Families carry grief, empty chairs at the table, and memories that feel sharper at this time of year. But into that reality, Isaiah’s vision speaks: God is preparing a home where everyone is welcome. A home of belonging, healing, and peace. 
 
Isaiah also paints this extraordinary picture: 
 
‘They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks’ (Isaiah 2:4). 
 
Imagine that. Weapons transformed into gardening tools. Tools of destruction refashioned into tools for cultivation. A world where conflict gives way to flourishing. This is not a vision of superficial peace. Not ‘let’s just try to get along’. This is a vision of shalom – wholeness, harmony, the kind of peace that transforms everything it touches. 
 
Imagine if all the arms manufacturers today announced that they were dismantling their weapons factories. Imagine if the resources poured into destruction were poured into cultivation, restoration, renewal. The ancient words from Isaiah are saying this is God’s wonderful plan in motion. 

Zechariah’s vision 

Fast forward to the story of Zechariah in the gospel of Luke, chapter one. There had been 400 years of silence about God’s wonderful plan. No prophet. No vision. No new word from God. Four centuries of people asking: ‘Where is God?’ ‘Has he forgotten us?’ ‘Has the plan stalled?’ Maybe you know that feeling yourself: Your own season of silence. Your own waiting. Your own prayers that seem unanswered. But biblical silence is never inactivity, it is preparation. Then, into that long ache of waiting, God speaks again. Not to a king. Not to an emperor. Not to someone with influence or visibility. God speaks to Zechariah, a man whose name means ‘God remembers’. A man who is married to a woman whose name, Elizabeth, means, ‘God’s covenant or God’s promises.’  
 
Zechariah is a man who kept showing up to serve God even when the heavens fell quiet… even when his and Elizabeth’s own prayers for a child had seemingly gone unanswered. 
 
In that quiet, hidden space, God begins to move the plan forward. As Zechariah offers incense, an angel appears. The couple is promised a child who they will call John, a forerunner who will prepare the way for Jesus. The long silence is broken. The plan is unfolding again. God’s timing is perfect. Zechariah can’t see all of it and he struggles to believe. But the silence is broken, and God’s action reminds us that even when we cannot detect him, God is preparing the way for Jesus. 

But Jesus came as the true Prince of Peace, born in a forgotten village to a young girl and a carpenter. No palace, no army and no splendour. 

The true Prince of Peace 

At the time Jesus entry into the world was imminent, Caesar Augustus sat on the imperial throne, claiming to be ‘God incarnate’, declaring that he alone brings peace. But the Roman ‘peace’ was held together by the sword – a fragile peace built on domination. But Jesus came as the true Prince of Peace, born in a forgotten village to a young girl and a carpenter. No palace, no army and no splendour. 
 
And Jesus still comes into our world and into people’s lives today bringing peace that the world cannot bring: a peace that reaches into the deepest conflicts of the human heart. A peace that transforms strangers into family, enemies into neighbours. A peace that leads him to lay down his life so that ours may be lifted up. This is the heart of God’s wonderful plan: It is hope breaking in, light overcoming darkness, peace triumphing over violence, love redeeming the world. 
 
Isaiah ends his vision with an invitation: 
 
‘Come, house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord’ (Isaiah 2:5). 
 
This Christmas, we can walk like people who believe God is still working and who belong to the home God is creating; we can walk like people who trust that peace is possible and who bring hope into fearful places. We can walk in the light, embody hope and be signs of God’s wonderful plan unfolding in the world. 
 
God sees the whole board of our lives. We may not understand the move he’s making. We may feel stuck on a single square. You may feel as though heaven is silent. 
 
But the Grandmaster never stops working, never loses sight of his plan and never forgets his people. 
 
This Christmas, lift your eyes, zoom out, see the bigger picture and enter again into God’s wonderful plan. 

* Adapted from the Small Wonder Series produced by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity