Providence is not a cookie cutter

It is always encouraging to hear how God saved someone. Sometimes it is dramatic, and other times it is not. But for each believer, the hand of providence was at work placing him or her in exactly the right place at the right time to hear the gospel and be saved, not to mention the events that were orchestrated to lead up to that moment. No two stories are the same because God's providence is not a cookie cutter.

Then why do we forget this when it comes to the varied circumstances God has placed us post salvation?

If someone is single - Why aren't you married? Don't you want to be married?
If you are married - Why doesn't your marriage look like x?
If you are married without children - Why don't you have any children?
If you have children - Why do you only have n number? Why don't you have more? Why do you so many? Why aren't you educating them like this?

I'd rather listen to my pastor on 1 Corinthians 7. Paul's thesis can be summed up in verse 17 (NASB):

Only, as the Lord has assigned to each one, as God has called each, in this manner let him walk. And so I direct in all the churches.

And our calling can be summed up in 1 Cor. 1:26-30 (NASB):

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

So first and foremost, God has called us to himself in Christ. He has saved us and is in the process of sanctifying us to be like Jesus. How God chooses to do that is his business, and this process will probably look very different from person to person. Some may be married. Some may be single, but the bottom line is to glorify him in the circumstance he has placed us by his providence. And all God's people said, Amen!

So back to my thoughts, why the push for cookie-cutter uniformity?

However well-meaning people may be, the above questions can sting the recipients. And for the questioners, do you really know what is best for someone else? Wouldn't it be freeing if there was more focus on being conformed to Christ in our unique situations rather than conformity to the cookie cutter du jour? If we trust God's providence for salvation, can't we trust his providence for the details of our individual lives, too?

Photo credit: By Marco Verch from Cologne, Germany (Cookie cutter set of stars) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons