What do you want to be when you grow up?

An NBA player. That’s how my big boys answered the “what I want to be when I grow up” question for years. And the little one is still holding fast to his pro football dreams. So we should be all set for our retirement, right?

I caught the little guy working on his touchdown dances the other day and wondered how to break the news that genetics are against him all the way around as far as this dream goes.

What about you? What did you want to be? Think back to those days. The ones where afternoons felt endless and daydreams were full of ballerinas, ballplayers, and catching all the bad guys. So many choices; so little time.And then someone told you that you had to get serious. What are you actually going to do with your life?

We sat in the counseling office at the high school a few weeks ago and filled out a graduation plan for our oldest. The classes he needs to take over the next three years flashed up on the computer screen as we discussed colleges, next steps, and future plans. He was wearing a tie that day because it was volleyball gameday. And I am not one to lament that my kids grow up, but I suddenly felt all the spinning and the slipping of time.

I watched him talk with his teacher and wondered what he thought about this whole getting older thing. He did not mention his plans to play in the NBA.

Growing up never happens quite like we think it will.

Life has a way of teaching us that certain things just aren’t meant to be. And that isn’t all bad.

God works his purposes out for each of us in different ways. Some of those dreams he buries deep in our souls and they do become realities. Yet, others move or change to give way to new plans.

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you; to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

I do love this verse. It’s the famous it will all work out in the end verse; a sweet and hopeful reminder that God has a plan for our lives.

And that’s great news.

Unless you’re standing on the shore of a dream that never came to be. Unless the plans God seems to have for you don’t make any sense. Unless it all goes sideways. Which it almost always does.

And then this verse can be a cruel reminder that you might have done it all wrong or that maybe God can’t actually see you here in the middle of this crazy world.

Here’s the thing about that verse, though. It loses its power when we quote it out of context.

That verse was spoken thousands of years ago by a prophet named Jeremiah. It was God’s promise to the people of Israel, his people. A people who were about to be captured and taken away from their homeland as prisoners.

Plans for good? Promises for a future? That would have seemed about as far fetched as my kids becoming NBA stars. Israel became nonexistent. The temple was left in ruins. The holy places were desecrated. The people were scattered. The prophet who proclaimed this promise got thrown into the bottom of a well because everyone thought he was crazy.

And yet God says over it all, “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you … to give you a future and a hope.”

What plans? The people must’ve thought. What future?

And God goes on. “And then you will call on me and pray to me and I will listen to you … you will seek me with your whole heart.”

That was the actual plan God had in mind.

Not the perfect job. Not the 2.5 kids who excel at everything. Not the perfect marriage. Not the perfect college acceptance. Not any of it.

Me, God says. I AM the “good plans I have for you.”

God wanted the people of Israel to know one thing. Him.

You see, God’s plans always have less to do with what we become when we grow up, and more to do with whose we become. His plan for us? It is that we would grow up and become … his.

The boy with the tie in the high school counseling office? I’m not quite sure how to tell him all of this. College is good, a job is excellent, plans are needed.

But.

It may go sideways. It might get hard. You might become that NBA player … or you might not. You might always know what you want or you might have no idea. You might have to start over a hundred times or just keep doing a small thing well for a very long time. You might think that none of it matters.

Growing up can knock the wind right out of you. And when it does? Remember this.

God does see us. God has good plans for us. Hear him whisper into your place today “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart.”

God made good on his promise to the nation of Israel. He grew them up into his people, again. And through them, he gave us the greatest gift. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us.

The plan is always to make us his.

No matter what we become when we grow up.“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” (John Piper).