The human species is an extremely complex and powerful creation by God. This capacity is demonstrated in the advancement of broad fields of life, physical and earth sciences. In medicine and technology, man has made incursions into areas that have profoundly changed the world. As remarkable as these achievements are, human beings have insurmountable limitations. Humans are finite in their capacity to predict or determine certain events or occurrences beyond the scope of predictive calculations.
So for instance, with all the knowledge and technology at man’s disposal, no human being, institution, software or machine could predict the widespread devastation of coronavirus, neither could they predict a George Floyd moment before it occurred. Both events have changed the trajectory of history and re-mapped the way we view the world forever. With unpredictable events, we are often reminded that leaning on our understanding or that of other mortals is folly. We might be able to calculate travel time, but we are unable to guarantee safe arrival. There is only so much we can gain from that behavior.
At times like this, it is useful for wisdom to prevail and be reminded that we come from a higher source. We did not, of our power, create ourselves. For this reason alone, we ought to stay connected to the source to find our way through the confusion that the world has come to be. The scripture tells us that we have no control of the next moment and that we could be here today and gone tomorrow… whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” James 4:14-15
Indeed, it is if the Lord wills that we can embrace the future. His creation is supposed to align its plans with those of his maker. We know of people who made plans and all have come to naught. We are also aware of people who were full of life today but had life taken away from them the next day. There lies the mystery of life. God cannot be fathomed. He is the ONE; the Alpha and Omega – Beginning and the End. His ways are certainly not our ways.
Pastor and author A. W Tozer, in his book The Attributes of God Volume 1, 21, attempted to capture the attributes of God succinctly when he wrote; “God is above, but He’s not pushed up. He’s beneath, but He’s not pressed down. He’s outside, but He’s not excluded. He’s inside, but He’s not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling. That is the immanence of God.”
Tell me one man in all of human history that can match that profile. So, we must quit acting and thinking that we are in control of the future. God is beyond measure and for this reason, He is beyond time. Man, on the other hand, lives within the confinement of time and measure. He has no definitive claim to the future. He breathes by the grace of God.