Read: Genesis 4 

A certain British company makes great play of the idea that ‘there is no plan B’.

I assume this is supposed to be a positive thought but, personally, that idea really freaks me out! What do you mean, no plan B? Of course there’s a plan B (and, usually, C, D and E as well!). For someone who can’t pop out for a pint of milk without automatically having in mind a set of alternative stores, routes and products, a world where there is only plan A is somewhat unsettling.

It is easy for me to read Genesis 4 and think that God had to bring plan B into play (because he had one, didn’t he?). He’d created Adam and Eve, and now they had two sons. The human race was setting off. And then one son is killed and the other banished.

But, oddly enough, God knew what he was doing. I love the moment at the end of the chapter when Seth is born. Not because I know very much about him, though I’m sure he was a very nice man, but for his place in God’s plan.

In Luke 3:37, at the end of the genealogy of Jesus’ earthly father Joseph, we find Seth. At the beginning of Genesis, God was planning for my salvation. Through all the twists and turns of the Old Testament, God’s plan was working out.

My life doesn’t always, or even often, follow my plan A. That can be annoying, difficult and sometimes deeply painful. I’m sure Adam and Eve were not all that thrilled with the way their elder son turned out, and they may well have been quite upset with God over the whole thing. I know I have had ‘words’ with God on many occasions when my life has not gone in the direction I planned.

Being sure of God’s plan for my life can be a tricky thing. If it is his plan, not mine, that I am following, then I can’t create the back-up options and line up the alternative routes. I have to believe that God knows what he is doing, and rely on a plan that started in Genesis.