Day 12: Living Daily in Reality: A Known Future
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Living daily in reality means seeing that we are not just little nothings
that occur by chance from some huge explosion in space, but that we are
the intricate creation of a personal, loving Father who made us inside
his own son. Of course that changes the whole way we think of ourselves
and our origin. We see that our physical parents were a gracious way for
our Father to get us on the earth but that we are really “God’s
workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that he has prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them”.

This transforms our attitude to our futures – if our maker has some
things that he has prepared for us to do. This lifts a heavy burden off
our shoulders – we are not left to chance encounters with important
people or the best opinions of guidance-counselors or the driving fears
of our own ambitions. We are here to do something that we were made for –
something that only we can do in the way our maker wants. At last we know
what to do about that sense of uniqueness that we have: we don’t have to
be driven by the need for others to acknowledge our uniqueness by gaining
some little celebrity status. We see that it doesn’t matter if the whole
world ignores us as long as our maker esteems us as part of himself.

But this reality of our being part of the son of the Creator of the
universe also affects our attitude to the future. You can see that if you
look again at that statement by Paul (to whom Jesus appeared in
Palestine) – “we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good
works which he has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them”. Even
we with our finite minds can see that our maker obviously knows
everything there is to be known about his creation. It is the job of
human manufacturers to know the potentials and limitations of their
product. How much more does the infinite being who made everything know
what will happen when millions of beings through thousands of years
interact with each other and their environment!

Indeed, when you think how many circumstances and contingent events must
occur repeatedly for you to get up each morning and get to work, the
being or power that enables all these to occur on time must know
everything in detail. So, obviously the creator knows all that will
happen and all the things we will do in our lifetime. The great
difference between the exercise of this power and that of a software
programmer is that our father is committed to guarding and preserving our
exercising free will. He put us here to give us that opportunity – to
come willingly to accept his plan for us – however long it takes and
however much he has to bear as we choose our own ways.

But the immeasurable benefit for us is that our future is a known way –
one that has been carefully planned and prepared and provided for by
someone who really loves and cares for us!