20/20 Hindsight

Matthew 24:29-35

　
Are you familiar with the phrase 20/20 hindsight? Normally it is used following some event where the person involved looks back and sees things more clearly. Sometimes it is with regret but other times it is just a matter of being able to look back and see how circumstances have worked out.

As Christians we believe that God has a plan for our lives. However, when we’re in the middle of life’s struggles we don’t always understand why things happen the way they do. But afterwards, we can look back, with 20/20 hindsight, and see how the sovereignty of God has been at work.

Paul explained it like this, "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Our passage in Matthew 24 is a small part of a much larger section where Jesus is prophesizing. He was in Jerusalem during the last few days of his life so you would expect at such a critical time that he would want to be strategic in all he did and said.

So what is this very important lesson that Jesus is teaching? Is he preparing his disciples for the persecution that awaits them? Is he warning the religious leaders of their hypocrisy? For that matter, what is he saying to you and to me?

This passage is about who God and Jesus are; the love they have for us; and the eternal hope that they offer. Jesus is promising his disciples that he will return; he will not forsake them. The same promise holds true for us. As we live our lives in the present, let us remember how God has worked in the past to bring us closer to him in the future.

We may not be able to prophesy like Jesus did, but for sure there is one thing that we can see in the future with perfect 20/20 hindsight; Jesus will return. In the meantime, we continue to trust and hope in a God who loves us, forgives us and is faithful to His eternal word.
　
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2024%3A29-35&version=NIV;MSG
http://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Matt.24.29-Matt.24.35