“Exactly As It Should Have Been”

When I’m at peace and have a bit of extra time to myself, I often just allow my mind to wander. I think about life .….. I think about things that are serious or trivial, things that are mysterious, questions with no definite answers. Do you ever do that?

I think about the terrific people I have known over my life. I have known so many truly wonderful people. Thankfully many are still with me on this earth… but quite a few have passed away. I’m no longer able to discuss “life” with them. While I miss them and our discussions and their wisdom and encouragements, I have a real hope of seeing them again. In today’s gospel it reads. “ I will not reject anyone who comes to me….for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise them up on the last day.” (John 6:35-40) I hope to be reunited with them one day in heaven. 

Yesterday I met someone while traveling that it’s almost certain that I will not meet again on this earth. We had a great conversation with our Uber driver as we were traveling back from visiting our daughter and family in Nashville. He was a wonderful young man and we spoke about life and family and dreams and the Lord. We prayed with him before he dropped us off at the airport, ending with “we’ll see you in heaven.” Perhaps that will be one of the real joys of heaven… “picking up where we left off” with many people…. “hey Jeremy, remember that drive to the Nashville  Airport, we prayed for your future, your health, your relationship with the Lord …how did it go…tell me about your life…how did it go…did you get married…. remember how we left as friends after only a short ride.” 

Another way I allow my mind to wander is to read thru scriptures, books & articles, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring things to my mind … insights, questions, conviction, joy, etc.  Recently a  question came up in an article by noted author Anthony Esolen. (The Poetry of Praise) He writes, “ Why do the angels rejoice more when the one lost sheep is found than over the ninety-nine who were never lost to begin with? If our rejoicing is just a matter of the bottom line, the total profit, then the joy is not reasonable. But God is not the answer to an equation. He is the source and the aim of our beings as persons. He is personally present in the least drop of water and grain of dust. He acts personally in the drama of our lives. For the created world is not a machine but a story, and stories have their turns, their surprises, their beauties we do not expect, but once they have burst upon us, our eyes are opened wide with wonder and delight, and we say, “Yes, we would never have foretold it, but this is exactly as it should have been!” Esolen summarizes well something that I’ve thought about many times… how God answers prayers perfectly, but we often don’t see how perfect the answer is until much later…. “Yes, we would never have foretold it, but this is exactly as it should have been!”.

The next time we are praying and asking the Lord to help us, the immediate answer we receive may be “yes or no or not right now or not in the way you asked, or essentially not in a way we would have foretold”. At that time may we recall this quote from Esolen, “ wow, I never would have foretold an answer like that, but it is exactly as it should have been.” May we always know that the answers to our prayers are exactly as they should have been…. because the one who answers our prayers is Almighty God who is all powerful and who loves us perfectly…and always has our best interest at hand.

Well I better bring this BLOG to a close and get back to some more day dreaming or better yet to my “to-do list” which is growing by the second. Hey, this may be exactly as it should have been.