Foresight, Hindsight

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"Our hindsight often explains God's foresight."

Don Shell 3/26/24

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As the words left his mouth, he stopped speaking, surprised at the wisdom he'd just uttered. So, too, did my own listening thoughts. "Wait a minute! That was profound; worth keeping and meditating on."

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At fourteen, I tried to peer into the future, wishing to know what was to come; a la Doris Day. No resonant voice rattled my world; no vision splendid dazzled my eyes. All was as it was a moment before and a second later. No matter how often I asked at thirty, fifty-five, seventy, the future was never revealed to me; a dense fog of unknowing uncertainty blocked the days and years before me.

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Now, from the lofty height of a septuagenarian, I peer back through the mists of time with near 20/20 clarity. This achievement, that embarrassment, those harmful words, that hurtful episode—all are vinegar-cleaned windows, revealing their consequences in sharp mega-pixel clarity. I see just fine in that direction.

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For Him, it was just as clear—no, far more so—than my examination of the past. He knew, for He was the Agent of my future. He Who knows all, sees all, shapes and forms all—He knew and brought into being all that I now am, all that I have experienced. Now I see that His foresight, His forethought was an arrow directed toward the precise target of His heart. Pierced, He bled love revealing the plan that was His for me from all eternity past.

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So, now, I'd like to modify Don's profundity just a bit. Not only does our hindsight explain His foresight, our hindsight vindicates His foresight. What appeared dim in future outline, now clearer in hindsight, brings the wisdom of His choices, His bunny trails, His detours and seeming mistakes, into the truth that is His continuous leading;

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for which, as more hours and days and years pile up behind me, I am increasingly grateful.

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3/28/24

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