Thinking Ahead

Mid-life with a good wife is a great life.

After 26 years of marriage, Candy and I have developed some habits that remain unchanged. I trim the shrubs, she waters the flowers. She washes the clothes, I wash the car (most of the time). I sleep on the right side of the bed, she sleeps on the left.

Now that our children are grown, we don't cook much, and we hardly ever eat breakfast together. Gone are the days when I would awake to the aroma of bacon, pancakes, and maple syrup. Now I stumble sleepy-eyed into the kitchen alone to pour myself some orange juice and toast a bagel.

Both of us take vitamins with our breakfast, so whoever gets out of bed first opens the bottles and lays out the pills for the other. On the days when Candy is the first to rise, I find my vitamins C and E, a multiple vitamin, and a little aspirin for my heart arranged neatly on a plate on the kitchen counter. It's a small gesture, but it makes me feel loved when I see that little row of pills. I like knowing that someone is thinking ahead about my health.

Forward-Thinking People

Truth is, most of my life someone has been thinking ahead about my well-being. When I was a baby, my parents provided me a warm place to sleep. At school I learned from well-prepared teachers. When I joined the basketball team and played trombone in the marching band, my coaches and conductors had planned ahead how to prepare us for our games and concerts. When I studied great books, I was informed and inspired by great writers from the past who blessed future generations by putting their thoughts into writing. I'm glad they thought ahead.

As a boy I attended a local church that was first established in 1858. In those days, storm-clouds of the approaching Civil War loomed on the horizon. Outside the barn they used as a meeting-house on Sundays, as they saddled up their horses for the ride home from church, the local farmers and merchants probably debated whether Abraham Lincoln would run for president in 1860. None of them could have foreseen our twenty-first century lifestyles with our cars, planes, computers, and TVs. But they were thinking ahead when they planted a church. Eventually my grandparents learned about Jesus there, and then my parents did, and then I did.

Viewing the Future With Faith

Thinking ahead is normal behavior for all who live by faith. According to the book of Hebrews, Abraham followed God even when he couldn't see exactly where God was leading him, for "he was looking forward" to a city "whose architect and builder is God" (11:10). Moses "regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward" (11:26). Jesus endured the cross because he was looking ahead to "the joy set before him" (12:2). The Old Testament prophets were thinking ahead when the Spirit of Christ in them "predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow" (1 Peter 1:11).

God thought ahead when he sent his Son to earth. "Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. What pleasure he took in planning this!" (Ephesians 1:4, 5, The Message).

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. He is still thinking ahead. Are we?