It’s All About the Pattern

By Tanya Jolliffe

One summer in college, I worked as a weekend relief in a local hospital food service. One of my jobs was preparing Jello. Mixing the different colors of gelatin was delightful, with the bright aromas of strawberry, orange, lemon, and lime. However, cutting the long sheet pans and counting out cubes to make individual servings could be monotonous. To break up the monotony, I challenged myself to try and cut the perfect pan by making all the cubes the same size square. I repeatedly followed the same pattern as I cut pan after pan of red, orange, yellow, and green cubes all summer.

Throughout the Bible, God uses patterns. For example, God kept choosing the second-born sons over the firstborn. He chose Abel and not Cain, Isaac and not Ishmael, and Jacob instead of Esau. Likewise, there was a barrenness pattern in the patriarchs’ wives. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was barren. Isacc’s wife, Rebekah and Jacob’s wife, Rachel were also barren.

God also uses patterns throughout the Old Testament stories to help us recognize our human condition. Adam and Eve see the tree, desire knowledge, and take action to pick some fruit. It doesn’t turn out well. This pattern repeats itself over and over in other stories as well. Abraham and Sarah see the enslaved Egyptian, desire a child, and take action to do what is good in their eyes versus God’s timing. And the pattern continues. Aaron sees the unhappy Israelites, desires a solution in Moses’s absence, and takes the gold to make a golden calf. The people see that other nations have a king, desire to be like them, and take Saul as their King. David saw Bathsheba, desired to have her regardless of her marital status, and took her as his own. These Biblical patterns provide a model of what to avoid. However, there are also patterns for imitation, such as the life of Jesus Christ.

Modern culture can cause us to view repeating patterns in our lives as unfavorable. But what if those repeating patterns are God revealing something about our purpose to us? If the Jello I was preparing was to accomplish its purpose of nourishment, each pan required repeating the pattern regardless of its color or flavor. The same might be true for us. God may need to repeat patterns in our lives regardless of our life stage to refine and prepare us to utilize our purpose. He might also provide us with a repeating pattern to allow us to break a cycle or grow in a new direction.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 reveals, “What has been, will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun,” suggesting that God is a God of repetition. In Malachi 3:6, we read, “I the LORD do not change.” In Hebrews 13:8, we are reminded that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God uses repeated patterns to help us grow beyond our human condition because he is consistent.

So, the next time you are facing a familiar pattern but are unsure why, try these three things: