Living Wisely

An image I have come to appreciate in the days and years leading into this 78th birthday month is the image of life unfolding.  It is an image that speaks to me at a number of levels.  First, it is a reminder that there is more unseen in life than seen.  More belongs to the realm of the invisible than ever considered possible.  What is seen is more like the tip of the iceberg.  The greater part of life is in the invisible realm, but it is a realm toward which we are always walking and as we walk toward what is still in the future, it is slowly and, if I might add, revealing itself, but in God's time.   

It is an image which brings to mind the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.  "Your kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)  Even though heaven is an unseen reality, we still pray that what is unseen will one day be present here on earth.  In other words we pray for that day when the veil will be lifted and the seen and unseen will become as one.  To think of life unfolding is to position ourselves in a place of moving toward the will of God which though not always seen is always in the process of unfolding before us.  

It is not an image which accommodates our infatuation with instant gratification.  Try as we might, we cannot hurry the unfolding nature of the will of God.  Neither can we hurry into the future He has planned and prepared for us.  We can only wait for the Lord to reveal it to us. Whether we wait with patience or impatience, it does not change the fact that God is the One who is charge of the unseen which stretches before us.  He gives us today.  We wait for the coming of whatever it is that is a part of tomorrow and beyond.  It is unfolding.  The unseen part of our life is out there in the invisible realm and it is coming.  To live wisely is to learn the importance of waiting on the Lord as it unfolds.