God’s Grace

I believe there is grace in not knowing what lies ahead in this life and even more grace in knowing what lies ahead after this life.

Return with me if you will to a memory I have from about twenty years ago. I was six years old, and my family was visiting my grandparents as we always did during the holidays. My grandparents lived in a small little house tucked in the woods, and glistening snow covered the trees and the ground that Christmas season; it was a snow that I’m glad I never saw coming, yet a snow that I will never forget.

It was a busy time of year as Christmastime always is, and because of this, my mom was not able to ride down with us to my grandparent’s house. She had some Christmas shopping to finish and gifts to prepare, and so, the plan was for her to join us at my grandparent’s house a few days late. Unfortunately, that plan—just a normal, everyday type plan—was never realized. Instead, the day we expected our mom to arrive, ready to celebrate Christmas and visit with family, turned into the day that we never saw her again. I told you I remember the snow. I remember it, not because it was an especially beautiful snow, but because it was the snow that took my mom’s life that day in a car accident. It was a snow that had an impact on our whole family, a snow that changed our lives forever in a way that none of us had ever seen coming.

Sometimes I am tempted to wonder, ‘Would it have been easier to know that my mom was going to die?’ In my humanness, I desire to be in control, and many times, I think of myself as the boss, as if I already know how life will go. But how shortsighted I am in thinking this way! If I am honest with myself, the truth—and many times it is a hard truth—is that none of us know what the future holds; this is a great part of what it means to be human, and for a while, this was a hard pill to swallow until I realized that there is grace in the unknown.

Ponder this reality a little further. I believe God has purposefully orchestrated the world in such a way that not even one of us knows what is in store for us in this life. This is a reality that we all share as humans. Some people find this to be unnerving, but I believe it is good and right. Why? Because it reminds us who we are and who God is; it causes us to see that He is the sovereign God, and we are not. I am a human being just like everyone else around me. I live on this earth just like other people have for years before me, and Lord-willing will continue for years after me. I don’t know the specifics of what will happen in the short time that I am here—and I don’t have to know. That, my friend, is incredibly freeing; ultimately, there is freedom in God’s sovereignty because I trust that He controls everything and brings all things to pass. Nothing I do will mess up God’s plan and purpose in my life and nothing that happens—not even the winter snow that took my mom’s life—is outside of God’s plan. The unknown of my earthly future, specifically where I will go and what will happen, reminds me that I am merely a human, and it is a gracious act of God that He determines the future.

In the same light, while it is a grace to not know what the future holds for us during our time on earth, it is a greater grace to know what the future holds after this life. As a Christian, I believe the Bible teaches that all people can know what to expect in the future; that is, our eternal future. There are two realities that exist when we die—eternity with God or eternity without Him—and every human is destined for one or the other. Through His Word, God has made this plain to man. His plan for humanity is completely spelled out in the Bible, and I believe this is a tremendous—incredibly tremendous—grace!

Essentially, God tells us how the story ends. Think about that! Though all of us wonder about our specific futures on this earth—where we will go, what we will do, how long we will live—none of us has to wonder about our future once we leave this earth. I believe all people can know with certainty what the eternal future holds for them. Either a person is saved from their sin through Jesus Christ or they are not, and praise God that we can know this reality before we die so that those who do not know Him—which at one point was all of us—might find life in Him!

If I have learned anything in my life thus far, it is that God is gracious in not allowing us to know our earthly future and even more gracious in allowing us to know our eternal future. This I believe and will always believe.