These days, with the number of prenatal tests available, having a baby is less of a mystery than it was when I delivered my daughters in 1985 & 1987. When contractions during my second delivery were about ten minutes apart, I made the very foolish statement: “I wish I knew what the next 24 hours would be like.” More than 36 hours later, I held our second daughter after a VERY rough delivery and said, “I’m so grateful I didn’t know how difficult this delivery would be!”
Sometimes, I still think I want to know what the future holds. But I’ve learned, over time, that God wants to crush every crystal ball. We were never intended to know our future.
He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him. Daniel 2:22
Do you think Daniel knew his future? Had he any inkling he would be taken captive to Babylon? To be schooled, with his friends, in the ancient wisdom literature that Abram would also have learned before going to Canaan? Or is it more likely that the boy Daniel and his three friends arrived in Babylon, not having any idea what their individual futures held? How cruel if God had told them all they would endure without proving that the God of Israel came with them to Babylon.
So why do we want to know our future–before we know God well enough to trust him for it? In my early years of baby faith and big life decisions, I asked God:
- Will I be happy if I marry Roy?
- How long will we live in our new house?
- Will we be successful in our new jobs?
God’s Secrets
Though the Lord answered each one of our questions with a lifetime of victories and challenges, He treasured His secret plans and the relationship we built together as the future unfolded. Moses talked about God’s intentionality with our future in his final sermon to the Israelites, as they stood on the border of His Promised Land:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. Deuteronomy 29:19
Why doesn’t God want us to know the future? Let’s look at the 2 reasons for which I’m grateful God keeps secrets:
- for our protection
- for our peace
#1 – For Our Protection
When I was a new believer, I was frightened to think God knew everything about my life yet kept it from me because He received some perverse joy in watching us suffer. Let’s take another look at those three questions I had asked about my future—that I now see God’s protection with 20/20 hindsight.
Will I be happy if I marry Roy?
Roy and I have experienced many “seasons” during our 41-year marriage. The Lord has blessed us with both joy and delight, but also hardship and turmoil. Had I known before our wedding the kinds of difficulties we’d encounter in this world and with each other, I’m not sure I would have agreed to marry him. Being young in my faith, I might have robbed us of the good times because I feared the bad. God protected me from deciding out of fear. Instead, I’ve seen Jesus peel back the layers of who He is with each new challenge. Had I not despaired during the battles, how could I have deepened my relationship with Jesus while He orchestrated the victories?
How long will we live in our new house?
We knew our first home—a 14’x70’ mobile home on “77 Easy Street”—would be a temporary home while Roy finished his undergrad at Ball State. 1 ½ years later, we moved into a family home for which we paid nominal rent. We were there for 3 years, when we moved into a small Indiana community, renting a 100-year-old house. We were there for 2 years when my hubby felt called into full-time ministry, so we moved to Ashland, Ohio. There, he completed a 2-year degree in Church Administration before we moved back to Indiana.
For this move, I begged God to give us a house that our daughters would always remember as home. We found that home in Nappanee, IN, where we lived and worshiped the Lord with dear friends for 14 years. During that time, all four of us made life-long friendships and some of our family’s best memories. Between 2007-2024, we moved four more times. To Vancouver, WA (near Portland, OR); Boone, NC (Blue Ridge Mountains); and back to Indiana (2 moves within 6 months). The Lord protected us financially, so we never lost money when selling a house, and gave us safe travels during those coastal years while traveling all over the country to visit our daughters and extended family. While living these ups and downs, the Lord taught us a little more about my third question….
Will I be successful in my new job?
In 2007, we moved from Indiana’s cornfields to Vancouver, Washington (20 minutes from Portland, Oregon). Talk about culture shock! Roy, newly graduated with his PhD, began a new career as a college professor, and I began chasing my dream to become a published author. During this season, our college-graduate daughters met the men they would soon marry. (I could give you a long list of ways Jesus protected our girls while searching for the good man God gave each of them.)
After the first year of teaching college students, my husband was sure he’d found his calling but soon discovered the financial issues that plagued all Christian colleges and universities. How could he be successful (and how could I get published) if he was RIF’d from a job he loved? God sustained us there for nine years, long enough to redefine success. We began counting the lives changed by God’s work through us as the eternal measure of success. He protected us even in our discouragement with sweet glimmers of His Light through others. What a good and tender God we serve, keeping His secrets from us until we could praise Him for the good, the bad, and more unknowns.
#2 – For Our Peace
Peace. As elusive as morning dew. As life-giving as springs in the desert. God continues to teach me that trusting His sovereignty brings peace in the waiting. I’ve often prayed, “Lord, why are you making me wait so long? I can’t stand it!” But I can endure it when I remember past waiting seasons and the good things He did as a result. But when I stomp my foot, demanding He do something, the heavens are often silent. It usually means I already KNOW His answer, from past experience or from His Word, but still refuse to find peace in God’s perfect timing.
Solomon, in all his wisdom, arrived at a simple conclusion at the end of his life through some major mental gymnastics in Ecclesiastes. He pens his “final conclusions” at the end of the book but hints at them in chapter seven as well:
When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future. Ecclesiastes 7:14 (emphasis added)
“Therefore,” means we should look at the preceding words to know what therefore is “there for.” So, here’s my interpretation of verse 14 as a whole: Live in the now, completely trusting that God holds our future in His tender hands. It’s similar to Moses’s advice in his final speech and to Job’s faith-filled declaration:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. Job 1:21
What About You?
Can you say with Moses, Solomon, and Job that you trust the God of secrets to reveal what you need to know at the proper time? Can you walk with Him, deepening your relationship because of the hardships, knowing He walks beside you? I would answer both questions with a resounding…”Sometimes.” 😕 I sometimes resort to my own strength and intellect in moments of despair, but I’ll always remember God’s faithfulness.
As we move through this month of Thanksgiving, I hope you can be grateful that the Lord reveals our paths–whether easy or hard–one step at a time.
