I was chatting with a friend the other day about the last few difficult years and the toll they have taken.
“I wish we had a time machine,” she said. “So things could go back to the way they were.”
There are days when I wish that too, but time moves in one direction and one direction only. The one force that exists outside the bounds of time is God.
He connects the past to the present to the future because He exists everywhere. I think as we move through time, we move closer to God. Time is our path to Him, our spiritual trajectory. I don’t know how many times I’ve wished I could go back and fix the mistakes I’ve made or relive the difficult times in my life with more wisdom and faith. And maybe those times were difficult precisely because I lacked sufficient faith. Yet those were also the times when
I learned and grew. My faith was made stronger even when I doubted it, even when I resisted. And I have resisted God’s will as often as I have accepted it.
I felt bad for my friend, so I said, “We do have a time machine. We’re in it right now; we just can’t go backwards, only forward. There’s no reverse gear!”
That got a smile out of her, and we both felt a little better about these past few years, realizing that the temporal breeze was in our hair.
Lord, You are with us always, past, present, and future. I pray my faith grows as I move closer to You.
—Edward Grinnan
