It was June 3rd, 1984.  Peggy and I were getting ready to go overseas, to Sri Lanka, for our first term in missionary life.  It was an emotional farewell with Miss Evelyn and Peggy’s father.  We would not see them again for three years and, in those days, there was no e-mail or other instant communication forms we take for granted now.  Miss Evelyn’s last words to us still ring in my ears.  “Well, you will probably never see me again.  I’ll be dead before you return.”  Happily, she was wrong and, even more happily, she is still with us now, more than 25 years later.  Thus Miss Evelyn’s prophetic career came to an end.

And yet, we all still have a yearning to know the future.  We fear events at work or in other aspects of our world and dread that they may come to pass.  We make plans for the future, for our kid’s education, for retirement, for careers and a host of more routine things.  How many of you are planning a vacation even now?  Professional “predictors” inhabit the news, sports, entertainment and financial worlds.  And let’s not forget our favorite, the weatherman.  Our desire to understand the future is the financial engine for many fine careers.

God seems well aware of this habit of ours.  James, in his letter tells us not to make confident statements about the future.  He cautions us to add “If the Lord wills” to any such statement.  He is not giving us a formula, although saying this as a habit is not a bad thing, but giving it as a reminder that we don’t know the future and it is all in God’s hands.  And of course there is this from Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of man plans the way, but the Lord directs his steps.”  This is a clear injunction.  Go ahead and make plans, but don’t forget your limitations.

We all know God holds the future, we all have had numerous experiences with unforeseen events, but we all are shocked the next time something unexpected happens.  And we all continue to make plans and to speculate on the future.  It just seems to be in our makeup.

So where does grace fit in this picture?  I’d like to submit that it is a measure of God’s abounding grace that we do not know the future.  God does not reveal the future because He loves us.  This concept was shared with me many years ago by songwriter Christine Wyrtzen.  I remember her words, which she also included in a song.  “God, in grace, conceals the way.”  It gives us an opportunity to focus on what is really our only stability, that we serve a good God who has the future under control.

If we spend a lot of time dreading or anticipating the future, particularly when many of the things we dread never come to pass, just think of how we would act if we had certainty about events.  For proof, just look at the story of Hezekiah.  When he became aware of the day of his death it marked a turning point in his life.  He was a great king but the last 15 years of his life did not measure up.

Planning is a good thing.  But planning can give us the illusion that we are in control of our lives.  We are not, God is, and we can be thankful. 

What event are you dreading, anticipating, planning or wondering about?  Why not take a moment and thank God for keeping you in the dark about it?  Do you have any experience to share where something you dreaded actually turned out to be a blessing?