Predictions

This was the last day I could get health screening done at the senior center, so I was anxious to see what some of my numbers were. Especially the cholesterol and bone density numbers. One was borderline, but the other was across the border, so to speak. After just having a fracture, I was encouraged by the number for that. But do I really want heart disease instead?

I was thinking today about predictions for people's lives. The health screens help predict medical problems we might have in the future. And that doesn't seem so bad. I can live with that and adjust my lifestyle to better my chances.

But as I drove past the train station today, I was reminded of Dean's brother and sister-in-law's visit from Idaho a couple of summers ago. It was so sad to say good-bye to them, and think it might be our last visit. But Dale was the healthiest of us all. Who would have expected it was our final good-bye to him and that he would die in a tragic semi accident two years later?

God holds back knowledge of the future for our individual lives out of mercy. Those who seek out fortunetellers or search their horoscopes are not getting their information from our Heavenly Father. It's just not the way He operates. God does open the future at times to help prepare His people for events, but His purpose is to protect us, not alarm us. The Bible is the only safe place to find predictions. Praise God He reveals all we really need to know.

Who Has a Flashlight?

A few days ago I desperately needed a flashlight to go down in my parents' totally dark basement to turn on their furnace. The house has been empty for months now, and we are hoping to sell it soon. But I was worried about the water in the pipes freezing and needed to get that furnace on again.

My dad would never have been caught without a flashlight and we found numerous ones of various sizes and styles in their house and in his car as we emptied them out, including boxes of batteries. I was driving his car now and believe it or not, there was not one flashlight left in the car and I was fifty miles from my own house! Where did all his flashlights go? I knocked on two doors in their neighborhood and both of them said they had no flashlights either. I was forced to go to a nearby convenience store and purchase one.

Driving home, I thought about disaster preparedness and how totally unprepared many of our homes are without even a flashlight--the most basic of all security items. Are we this unprepared in our spiritual lives too? The Lord is coming soon. If your neighbor knocked on your door for some Holy Spirit, would you have to send him to the store to get some?