“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” — Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
We are inside our own stories in a way that makes them very difficult to read.
The characters in the book of Esther did not know they were in the book of Esther. Esther did not know that her selection as queen was the opening move of a rescue that would save her people. Mordecai did not know that his refusal to bow to Haman was the first domino in a sequence that would end with Haman on the gallows. Haman did not know that the lot he cast was giving his enemy eleven months to outmaneuver him. Each of them was responding to the immediate situation in front of them, making decisions based on the information they had, without the perspective that comes from reading the whole story.
This is the condition of all human life inside of time. We are in the story. God is above it. He sees the whole arc while we are still living one chapter. This is why faith in His providence is not a denial of the uncertainty we feel. It is the decision to trust the Author while we are still in the middle of a chapter that has not yet resolved.
The Ecclesiastes verse above captures something important: God has set eternity in the human heart, which means we have a longing for the whole story, for the arc, for the meaning of what we are going through. But no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Not from within the story. The longing for perspective is built in. The ability to have complete perspective while still inside time is not.
This is not a reason for despair. It is a reason for trust. The same God who was writing the book of Esther from outside the story of every character in it is writing your story from outside your experience of it. He sees the chapter you are in as part of an arc you cannot yet see. He knows how the lot lands. He knows which night the king will be unable to sleep. He knows who is at the gate.
Today, give yourself permission to not have the full perspective. You are inside the story. Trust the Author.
Father, I do not need to see the whole arc. I trust the Author who does. Where I am confused about the chapter I am in, give me the peace of knowing that you see it from beginning to end, and that you are making it beautiful in its time. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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