When Life Falls Apart and God Draws Near
Most of us don’t need help imagining broken plans. Life has a way of undoing the script we carefully wrote. A diagnosis. A relationship that falls apart. A dream that hits the wall. A moment that leaves you thinking, “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
The opening chapter of Matthew tells the story of someone who knew that feeling well. Joseph had a simple plan. Build a life. Start a family. Enjoy the future he had envisioned. Instead, his world split open with four words: “Mary… is with child.” His plan collapsed in a moment.
Yet it is in that swirl of confusion that God stepped in with one of the clearest promises ever given: “Do not fear… what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit… they shall call his name Immanuel,” which means God with us .
The Christmas story doesn’t begin with cozy scenes and quiet nights. It begins with a man whose dreams were shattered, and a God who met him right there.
When plans break, God is not absent
The tension Joseph faced is the same tension we feel. We want God to bless our plans. We hope He’ll walk the road we drew up. When life bends in a direction we didn’t ask for, the easy assumption is that God must be distant.
Matthew doesn’t hide Joseph’s turmoil. His fear, shame, and heartbreak are all real. But into that emotional chaos, God speaks: “Do not fear.” Not because Joseph should have been stronger, but because God was closer than Joseph realized. God wasn’t breaking Joseph’s life apart. God was breaking into Joseph’s life.
Sometimes what feels like a disaster is actually the doorway into God’s presence.
Broken plans can be the beginning of God’s presence
Joseph imagined a normal life. God imagined redeeming the world. Joseph pictured a predictable future. God pictured something eternal.
The angel reminds Joseph that this pregnancy is not an accident. It is the fulfillment of a 700-year-old promise from Isaiah and the arrival of the Savior who will “save his people from their sins.” God was writing a story far bigger than Joseph’s plan ever could have held.
He still works that way today. The moments that feel like collapse often become the ground where God plants His greatest work. Our broken plans do not signal God’s absence. They often reveal God’s arrival.
Broken plans can be the fulfillment of God’s promises
Matthew quotes Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive… and they shall call his name Immanuel.”
God had been promising “God with us” since the beginning of Scripture. Creation, covenant, the temple, the incarnation, the resurrection, and the future restoration all shout the same truth: God wants to be with His people.
That promise didn’t stop the hard parts of Joseph’s story. It simply meant that Joseph would not face them alone. And neither do we.
Broken plans can become the pathway to God’s purposes
Joseph didn’t fully understand the plan. He surely didn’t feel ready. Yet Scripture says he simply did what God commanded. Trust turned into action. Faith stepped into uncertainty.
He could have held tightly to his own plan. Instead, he surrendered to God’s. And in doing so, he stepped into history.
Our surrender does the same. It doesn’t earn God’s love. It simply positions us to experience the purpose He is unfolding around us.
The promise still stands: God with us
The light of God’s presence still shines into the darkness of broken plans. The question is not whether God is near. The question is whether we will pay attention to the light in front of us.
If Jesus is with you, you are not abandoned. You are not overlooked. You are not carrying your life alone. The cross and the resurrection prove that there is nothing He will not do to be with you, even in the parts of life that make no sense yet.
When your plans fall apart, God is not walking away. He is drawing near.