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Text: Jeremiah 29:10-11 And now I’m glad I didn’t knowThe way it all would end, the way it all would goOur lives are better left to chanceI could have missed the painBut I’d have had to miss the dance I’m not a huge country music fan, but I enjoyed Garth Brooks back in the day, and this is the chorus of one of those songs, “The Dance.” There’s something about it that came to my mind when I read today’s text in Jeremiah. Garth sings about suffering and loss, but reflects at the end that there was also meaning and purpose to that loss. And unlike Garth’s lyric about leaving our lives to chance, we believe that our lives are in God’s hands. All the more reason to not miss out what God might be doing in the midst of suffering or loss. Let’s look at our text for today, which includes the well-known verse about plans and a future and a hope – what I call the graduation mug verse. And let’s see what it was that God did not want His people to miss. God’s Plans Verse 11 begins, “For I know the plans that I have for you…” When we see that on a coffee mug, it is easy to import our own plans into that rather than ask “What plans, Lord?” In the context of Jeremiah 29, those plans include the seventy years in Babylon (v.10). Those plans include shalom (welfare), a future, and a hope. Let’s consider each of those in this context: Seventy Years in Babylon When Jeremiah was writing this, he and the Exiles were still at the front end of the seventy years. And he’s already unpacked for his readers what that seventy years will entail. It’s not going to end quickly, despite false prophecies to the contrary. God has brought them here intentionally, to teach them about faithfulness and obedience. During the generations-long stay, God expects them to LIVE: to build homes, plant gardens, have families, and multiply. This was how they were supposed to live all along, but they would only rediscover that here in Exile! And perhaps hardest of all to fathom, they were to seek and pray for the shalom of their captors. Shalom/Welfare We talked about shalom at length several weeks ago. It is variously translated as welfare, prosperity, peace, and blessing. It describes being right with God and with humanity. It’s not something to horde, but something to share! And that’s just what God seems to want to teach His people, the “children of blessing.” It is in seeking the welfare of the Babylonians that God’s people would discover and experience it for themselves. Verse 11 also says God’s plans are for shalom/welfare and not for calamity. It certainly would have been easy to think that losing everything and being brought captive to Babylon was calamity. But God is making clear that things are not out of control, but within His plan and purpose. And that purpose is extending shalom to the Babylonians and restoring shalom to His people. Future and a Hope Verse 11 also describes God’s plans for a “future and a hope.” This future and hope are spelled out in verse 10: “I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.” God has not abandoned them (God is actually speaking to them NOW), and God will bring them home, but it will be after the period of Exile. Taken altogether, it becomes clear that God’s plan is for His people to rediscover who they are and what it means to be a “blessing people.” That’s their future; that’s God’s plan for them! And that is something they apparently needed to learn in Babylon. The Dance Throughout this series I’ve been comparing parts of the Exile to our experience with COVID over almost a year now. I do want to remind you again that I am not saying God brought COVID on the world in the same way that He sent his covenant people into Exile. Nor does any personal loss or suffering you may have experienced mean that God is pushing or disciplining you. What I do want to highlight is that God doesn’t go away when things get tough. Remember Psalm 23:4?  “Even though I