My three year-old son was sitting on my lap as I told him a story, the story of how his mother and I met. He looked up at me with a curious expression as I told him of how my cousin kept telling me about her friend, and how she wished I would give her a call. I told him how I hadn’t been interested in tracking down a “blind date” with some unknown high-school senior (I was a sophomore in college).
My cousin had stopped nagging me about it, until one day sitting in biology class I just decided to scratch out a note asking my cousin to set up a time for me to meet this girl. I stamped the letter, and took it to a curbside post office box. I hesitated at first, and almost pulled back the letter, before letting it fall into the mailbox. It was too late. I couldn’t retrieve it. And my whole life was changed.
I met the girl my cousin told me about, and she was everything she’d promised, and more. I loved her, married her, and can’t imagine my life any other way. As I told that story, I looked into this little face and realized that one more half-second of hesitation and I probably never would have mailed that letter. I would have never met this girl. This little boy wouldn’t exist at all. A nanosecond decision in a biology class has resulted in not just my personal happiness, but, potentially, entire generations of people who never would have lived otherwise. Thank God I wasn’t interested in the lecture that day.
One’s life story is typically made up of such little decisions. Think about how different your life would be now if you hadn’t made a decision, maybe one you came to in a matter of seconds. Think about all the decisions made for you–that you probably never noticed or thought about–that have formed who you are and what you’re doing.
If your grandfather hadn’t noticed that girl at the picnic, or if he’d been too shy to say anything about it, you wouldn’t exist. All of us can think of similar “what if” situations. If Franklin Roosevelt’s mother had had a migraine headache the night he was conceived, we might all be speaking German right now. Who knows? History moves along by the seemingly small and insignificant decisions of billions of people, and by the seemingly random forces of nature.
Christians have a unique perspective on the unfolding of history–whether on the broad, cosmic level or on the small, personal level of our own stories. We believe that God is king, and that he governs the flow of events around us. As Southern Baptists, we confess our belief with other Christians in what we call divine providence in this way: “God as Father reigns with providential care over his universe, his creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.”
For the next several days, I’m going to post here on a practical theology of providence. I hope the Lord will use it to call forward some courage in your life, and mine, as we face the future.
