“Look at what was happening to you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’s Temple. When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy everything you worked so hard to produce. Even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord. “Think about this eighteenth day of December, the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid. Think carefully. I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn. You have not yet harvested your grain, and your grapevines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not yet produced their crops. But from this day onward I will bless you.””
Haggai 2:15-19 NLT
There is a certain irony to being a believer. On the one hand, we are finite creatures who are forced by our ontology to live in the moment. On the other, we are meant for eternality and in our salvation of the moment, have gained a perspective beyond it. That perspective allows salvation to free the past as well the present and the future. Even though the past is gone, experientially, we can still shape it in hindsight. We can bring a context to it that effectively redeems it, regardless of how brutal a point in time it was to live through. This is true of both the mundane and the heinous. A relationship with God brings salvation to your whole timeline. Instead of being anchored in the now, as before, we can be anchored in his infinite character and navigate ourselves with confidence that shouldn’t be had by a finite creature. This is a promise that we should hold onto in difficult memories and coming threats of war, persecution and famine. God is with us and this means blessings too. The spiritually mature will slowly realize that not only does the future bring blessings, but the extended hand of providence was always there. Grace was always abounding, even in our worst sinful times.
JOSH McGARY. COM 