Here's Hope

Jerry Rea, Pastor

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There All the Time

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Well, these are the times we’ll look back on and say, “He was there all the time.”  Think forward for just a moment.  One of the blessings (and sometimes curses) of being human beings is the ability to try and look into the future.  We imagine (even have visions) of the future.  Because of this gift we’re able to make a plan or have an image of where we want to be in a year or two.  In “spiritual” terms we might call it a vision.  If a young man or woman wants to become a doctor, he or she realizes that going to (and through) schooling and internship is not just required, it’s a good thing. When you and I go to our doctors we go knowing that they’ve been well trained, tested, and schooled in the human body and its abilities as well as its possible ailments.   If they get there they’ve moved there being drilled and well prepared for our future.  We put our very lives in the hands of these young people.  It’s a good thing to have faith in their expertise and training.  They’ve already looked forward and are ready for people like you and me.  So, looking forward is a good thing. 

On the other hand, if we look into the future (which we can’t predict) we might get worried about tomorrow, for ourselves, and surely for our children and grandchildren.  Anxiety and worry can absolutely cripple us.  The truth is we do not really know what tomorrow will bring.  We listen to our weathermen knowing that they are predicting tomorrow’s temp and patterns, doing the best they can with what they know today about tomorrow.  Sometimes they will reach far ahead and tell us we can expect rain a full week away.  Of course, we know that a lot can happen inside a week. After all, who can predict the weather in Alabama?  Looking into the future (too much) we feel a pain in our chest and quickly worry about whether we have heart problems, or some sort of cancer.  That’s when looking into the future can become a danger.  We quickly begin to worry and very often that which we worry about never happens. 

All this being said, I’d like us to take just a moment to look out into tomorrow, next week and the end of our lives... way out there in the future. At the end we’ll look back and say “He was there all the time.”  We’ll experience a wave of thanksgiving being able to put our finger on days and weeks, and perhaps even years, in which we don’t know how we made it... except “He was there all the time.”  Someone taught me that it’s easier to see God looking back than it is to see Him in the future. Of course, by faith we expect Him in the future.  We often experience Him in the present.  Then, as we look back we “know” His presence was near. 

Think about this for just a moment.  He is here.  With all our worries and cares and activities we become blind in our present.  I think this is pretty normal.  As the children of Israel moved into the Promised Land they thanked God for having brought them across literally years of hardness and harsh times.  They looked back and there He was... all the time.  Could it be that right now in your life God is there?  Could it be He’s right behind the cloud over your head?  He’s there, just like the sun.  The sun is always there... but often it moves behind a cloud. 

Your God is there... and He has his loving eyes on you!

Praying for you on your walk with God!

Jerry Rea