Friday, April 13, 2007


Seeing the Future

Both times Christy was pregnant we wanted to find out as soon as we could if we were having a girl or boy… Some people like to be all old-school about it and wait so that they can be surprised, and that’s cool; but for me, I knew there were going to be plenty of other surprises in store over the next thirty years and so I was ready to know something for sure. Like, okay… here’s one: a tiny fourteen pound baby girl can burp with just as much volume and intensity as any 240 pound linebacker after he has inhaled an entire pizza… no one bothered to tell me this. It was just like, “Surprise!”

Actually, the real reason I always wanted to know our little girls were little girls as soon as I could was that I just wanted to know them as soon as possible. We named our girls and called them by their names ages before they came into this world because they were already real people and they were already real people who were a part of our everyday lives. But also, we were looking ahead. We were naming them and thinking about not only who they were, but who they were going to be once they were out in the world and in our arms.

I was reading the other day about the death of Moses and how the last thing he ever saw before he died was the Promised Land. He saw a bush on fire that didn’t burn up when he was 80 years old and God made promises about Canaan. 40 years later the nation of Israel was on the threshold of Canaan… the front porch of the Promised Land and God told Moses to climb a mountain and take a look before coming home. Deuteronomy 34:1-2 says this, “Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land- from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea.”

It struck me when I read this that When God was showing Moses “all the land of Judah” it was still filled to bursting with those messed up Jebusites. Israel was still Canaan. You see, our Father looks out over previously claimed and unconquered territory and names it for His children. Don’t you know that Moses’ heart exploded with joy and his eyes filled with tears when God called that land “Judah?” It was what he always wanted.

You know, there is a person I will be one day who trusts God completely, is filled with joy and gratitude all the time and loves everyone more than I do myself. There is a totally righteous me out there who is conformed to the image of Christ and the great thing is, my Father sees that me. May we have eyes of faith to see into the future the way He does… to see unseen victories… He sees who you are and He knows who He’s making you into. May you see with a heart of faith not just losses, failures and problems everywhere, but the land of Judah stretching out before you, knowing He’s going to give it to you one day.

1 comment:

The Hull Munchkins said...

What an encouraging word about how God sees us! It's so hard to think that way... I guess it's a reminder to us that it's a good thing we AREN'T our own gods.
I got a kick out of your last note on our blog! What in the world are you doing up at that crazy hour?!
Pabs

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