All I’ve been able to think about as I’ve started this new year is that I need to stop and look back. I can’t get the phrase “Hindsight is 20/20” out of my mind. I can look back over the last couple years of our journey and see with so much more clarity what the Lord was doing...not just doing for us, but more importantly, doing in us.
With this idea of looking back and recognizing those lessons, I am planning to write about them in this series called Hindsight in 2020. Maybe what I learned can benefit someone else, if not, writing it out will certainly help me remember and process each of those lessons. So, today I’ll start with the most recent revelation.
Remember back in November of 2018 when we thought we found the house we were supposed to have and did our own modern day Jericho march? I posted about it on social media. The short story is the seller did not accept our offer, but we really believed the Lord directed us to that house. We were reading about the Israelite's journey through the wilderness into the promised land and felt God said to do a Jericho walk. We drove or walked through the neighborhood praying over the house, the neighborhood, and God’s plan for us once a day for 7 days, and on the 7th day we did 7 laps blowing “horns” and shouting. It was fun and heartfelt, but it was also scary to think that God’s plan may not include giving us that house, then what have I taught my children.
Well, clearly that was not God’s plan and I’ve questioned why God said to do it if he knew he wasn’t going to give us that house. We still have some of those “horns” and whistles around the house and I’ve often looked at them and felt foolish. What did I teach my kids about God in that moment? I know I heard him say to do it, but it was pointless. We didn’t get that house, or the 5 others after it. The other day I picked one of those horns up off the floor in Harper’s room and thought to God “why did you have us do that?”
A couple days later we had some people over and Maddox heard PT telling someone a little of our journey and how this house was our 7th offer in a long journey of looking for a house. Maddox looked over at me and said, “mom, remember that Jericho house? It wasn’t 7 laps, it was 7 offers.”
Every time I think about him saying those words it brings tears to my eyes! I had not made that connection. Honestly, I’ve tried to block out the heartache that the 6 unsuccessful offers created. But Hindsight really is 20/20!
Sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense. Even after the fact sometimes we don’t see it. I’ve fought thinking that my kids saw our faith as foolish, but because we took that bold step to make the Bible come alive in our situation, Maddox saw God’s faithfulness and truly understood that His faithfulness doesn’t always look like we expect.
God is so faithful! He’s faithful even when we are not. He’s faithful even when we can’t see it or feel it. It’s just who he is. If we’re not seeing Gods faithfulness it’s not because he’s not been faithful it’s because we can’t see with his clarity. It may simply look different than we expected.
If you are in a place where you can’t see God’s faithfulness don’t give up! It is there, it just may look different than what you are expecting. Ask the Lord to give you some Hindsight in 2020, so you can see him more clearly. He loves to reveal himself to his children.
