When I was about 20, which was only a couple
of years ago, I was lifting weights at the YMCA when I saw a man in his 40s doing curls. Because of the mirror, I could see both the front and the back of
this stranger. I could see that his arms were huge. He was curling what I was
bench pressing. He had blond hair and blue eyes. He was my height and my body
type. He looked like me plus 20 years of age and 50 pounds of muscle. I
wondered, Is that me, from the future? I studied him to determine if this was
the case. He never even glanced at me. That’s how I finally determined that it
wasn’t me. If it was me--from the future--I wouldn’t be able to stop from
stealing a glance at the me from the past, whom I had probably gone back 20 years just to see (why else would I go to the past and work out at my old gym?)
at the risk of destroying the space-time continuum. I think I was reading a lot
of Philip K. Dick at the time.
Time, for anyone who pauses to think about it, is
fascinating. Fate, time travel, changing history, time zones, daylight savings--the list could go on. My favorite thing about time, though, is that God
invented it. And, the coolest thing about God’s understanding of time, is that He knows everything that will ever happen. In fact, before He created the
heavens and the earth, He knew everything about me. He knew when and where I
would be born and when and where I will die. He knew that I would see somebody
at the gym and wonder if it was me from the future. Do you think He smiles
about that or rolls His eyes?
The Bible tells us that the steps of the righteous are
ordered by God. If you put that together with His omniscient understanding of
time, you’ve got a rock solid plan. And if you went a little off-track,
off-plan, for a spell, you don’t have to sweat it: God knew that you would do
that. He built in an allowance for that. He doesn’t just know the number of
hairs on your head, He knew the numbers of hairs on your head for every second
of your life before He created Adam. God’s plan is so good, we can’t mess it
up.
P.S. If I disappear in my 40s, check the Pat Jones YMCA’s
records from 1999.
