What Lies Ahead?

For the past two years, as we put the boys to bed, Robin and I have taken turns staying with them for a short while after the lights have been turned off. The boys call this "rocking" although in order to make space for their furniture we had to move the rocking chair out of the room. Our goal has been to help them settle down and get to sleep. Being 4 and  6 year-old boys this can occasionally be a challenging task! Sometimes they sit on our lap, sometimes we sing a song or two. Sometimes we talk quietly about what has happened in the day that made them sad or glad. And sometimes they just drop right off to sleep.

The other night it was my turn and shortly after the lights went out the youngest asked if he could sit on my lap. I was sitting in a chair near the bed and told him to come on over. He climbed up, with a stuffed animal in his hand, and just sat there as I gently swayed to one side and the other. As he sat, I silently prayed over him.

After praying I started to think a bit. I'm 58 years older than he is. What will the world be like for him 58 years from now? That will be the year 2077. What kinds of things will he have done? What kind of person will he be? Who will be the people who are his family? His friends?

Those are questions for which the answers, at this point, are beyond my imagination. Briefly I thought back 58 years in my own life. I know much about the circumstances of my own family in 1961 but I have exactly zero memories of my life at the age of four. So then I jumped to 1977, one century earlier from that future point in Junior's life. In December, 1977, I was 20 years-old, in the US Navy, on my second deployment, spending my second Christmas overseas. But even from that reference point in my life one wouldn’t be able to predict today's answers to those same questions of me: What kinds of things will he have done? What kind of person will he be? Who will be the people who are his family? His friends?

One thing I do know is that the God whom I prayed to as I held Junior on my lap, the God who holds all things in his hands, will still be on his throne, still holding all things, still keeping every promise that he has ever made. He will be doing it 58 years from now, just as he was doing it 58 years ago, just as he has done since the moment of creation.

What lies ahead? Truly, only God knows. Whatever else may happen over the course of Junior's life, I pray that he will come to know God, through his son, Jesus. I pray that he will know and love Jesus, deeply and dearly, as his Savior and Lord. 

All of our children are learning something of the language of faith as they grow up in a Christian home. And I pray that however their lives' may unfold that one day the Lord will give each of them the precious gift of faith in himself.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.