Just recently I realized the picture hanging by my parents’ front door is the very snapshot of the three fish caught after children’s prayers many years ago. My dad was one year older than I am now. This was also one of the summers our family of five joined the Woodward family of five for a week of vacation.
A few days ago we had a reunion at an Atlanta Braves baseball game. Twenty-five years after the fish picture, everyone looks different… and the children of our children play together. What will be the picture twenty-five years from now?
We may have a hard time imagining the future, but God sees it plainly. Throughout Scripture, He speaks or lets His servants speak about the future. Sometimes words of prophecy bring hope and comfort for the days ahead; other times prophecies bring consternation.
Walking with Jesus, the apostles admired and praised the beautiful Temple Herod had improved in Jerusalem. Their Teacher spoke about things to come: “I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2)
This prediction did not come to pass until 70 AD, around forty years later. The Roman general Titus led a ruthless army to conquer Jerusalem. The Temple was totally destroyed and the precious articles inside were marched out of the city.
When Jesus’ words were fulfilled, many of the apostles had already given their lives for the Gospel. If most were not even going to be alive during the destruction of the Temple, why did Jesus reveal the future? Perhaps He wanted to remind them to shift their eyes from the ‘seen to the unseen.’ “This world is going to pass away; but My Kingdom will last forever. So seek My Kingdom first.”
The Second Coming is closer now than ever, but Jesus claimed even He did not know the exact time. He instructs us to watch and pray. “Though you do not know the day… be alert, be sober minded, and don’t be caught off guard. Stay close to Me and learn to shift your eyes from the seen to the unseen.”
Jesus teaches us to ask for daily bread while living in the light of eternity. He lived this way… while healing the sick, casting out demons, befriending the outcast, and pointing to His perfect Father in Heaven. “Lord, help us do the same…”
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man… Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him.” Matthew 24:36-44
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” II Corinthians 4:8