Hindsight Better

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Symbol: Driving, coming up on a distant landscape.

Lesson: Hindsight is better than foresight.

Illustration: As we are coming up on something in the distance, whether it be a town, a farm, or something else, we might find ourselves thinking, “I think I see what it is.” Even as we pass through it, we may still find ourselves trying to determine features about it. However, after having gone through it, we may finally have a good idea.

Similarly, on this side of an unfulfilled prophecy, we may think we have an idea of how it will unfold, turn out. Even as the prophecy is being fulfilled, we may not completely realize or appreciate it. It is not until we are on the other side, where it is now a fulfilled prophecy that we find ourselves thinking, “Oh! Yes, that makes perfect sense. I wonder how I didn’t see it in the first place.”

Notes: Even with personal decisions that may have us baffled, confused, and uncertain, it is usually after the situation has played out that we, in hindsight, say, "I wish I would have handled this differently." But this is not the case with God. He knows exactly how to handle things for everyone's best interests. His foresight is just as clear & certain as his hindsight.

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Driving Laws

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Symbol: Driving rules

Lesson: Being narrow-minded only hurts you.

Illustration: So you are talking with a peace officer, lamenting that there are so many driving rules to remember. The officer, trying to be kind and put it into perspective, responds: “Look, just obey the traffic signs and signals and you are pretty much obeying safe driving rules, which is the intent of the motor vehicle code.”

But is that really all there is? For example, there are no signs saying “don’t drive on the sidewalk.” However any rational person should already know that is not safe. But say the next day you are at an intersection and it seems to be gridlocked. So you think to yourself, “Hey, I only need to make a right turn and there are no pedestrians around, I’ll just quickly go around the corner on the sidewalk—after all, there are no signs saying I can’t.” So you cautiously proceed on the sidewalk around the corner. Guess who’s there? Yep, a peace officer. He pulls you over and you sigh a breath of relief. Why? Well, it’s the same officer you spoke to yesterday. He’ll understand. You greet the officer with a big smile. He’s not smiling. When he starts to write up the ticket, you protest, “But officer, there were no signs saying I couldn’t do that. Remember what you told me yesterday?” The officer laughs and and says, “Haven't you ever heard of common sense?”

Notes: In Romans 13:8, Paul said, “Do not owe anything to anyone except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.” There are some people that become so focused on one specific passage, they want to use that as an excuse to completely dismiss not only the rest of the scriptures, but even common sense. With regards scriptures, even Jesus himself expanded what the intent of “The Law” (Mosaic) was when he said at Matthew 22:36-40 “You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.” John, one of the apostles that actually walked with Jesus, said “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and carry out his commandments.  For this is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:2,3) Regarding common sense, anyone inclined to base their whole belief on one, two, or even a small handful of scriptures chosen to fit their preference needs to realize that God is not fooled. The only one such people are fooling are themselves.

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