One day some soldiers found a little package in a clover field south of Frederick, Maryland, on September 13, 1862. It was a roll of paper wrapped around three cigars. Though they were initially excited to find the cigars, the real excitement came when they read the paper. It was a copy of Robert E. Lee’s Special Orders No. 191, and it detailed the general’s plan of attack to invade Maryland. The paper made its way through the chain of command and was instrumental in the Battle of Antietam, which ended Lee’s first invasion of the North. Talk about being at the right place at the right time!

Jesus did not come to simply stumble around looking for random lost individuals, but He came prepared to fulfill a perfectly orchestrated and intentional mission for God.”

Those soldiers demonstrated their faithfulness by putting away the cigars and reporting what they had found. However, the soldiers were fortunate. They had not been assigned the task of locating Lee’s plan of attack. A serendipitous circumstance is much different than a specific mission. The former is about chance; the latter is about intentionality. The former is a lucky confluence; the latter is about orchestrated design. When it comes to Jesus and His mission, we find someone more qualified to thwart the enemy’s plans. Jesus did not come to simply stumble around looking for random lost individuals, but He came prepared to fulfill a perfectly orchestrated and intentional mission for God.