Prognosticators and Prophets
I'm sure you are aware that yesterday was Groundhog Day, that insignificant "holiday" where a glorified rodent supposedly predicts the weather for the rest of the winter. I'm not sure of its origins, or how Punxsutawney, Pa. became the center of its celebration, but I did enjoy the movie filmed there.
In fact, if you turned on your TV news or scrolled through your social media posts yesterday you probably saw video of the real ceremony, where a celebrity groundhog named "Punxsutawney Phil" came out of his hole at Gobbler's Knob on a sunny morning, saw his shadow, and thus predicted that we will be having six more weeks of winter.
I've never been to Punxsutawney, though I do enjoy saying the word (considerably more than I do typing it!). I did play played baseball in college with a guy from there (his name was Bill...and yes, we called him "Punxsutawney Bill.") He said it was the biggest event of the year in Punxsutawney, as one might imagine, with much pomp and circumstance. Still, it's hard to get that excited about the accuracy of a Pennsylvania rat as a weather prognosticator.
Of course, it's not like the crowd of trained meteorologists at our local TV stations do a lot better, even with their computer models, Doppler radar, and satellite imagery. But sometimes I think the frustrations and disappointments of blown forecasts are more the fault of the milk-and-bread buying general public when things don't go as predicted, because we all expect too much to begin with. In the end, they are trying to predict the future, and experience proves that's there no guarantees at that for anybody.
It does seem that we have more than our share of prognosticators and prophets these days, forecasting everything from long-term weather patterns, to college football recruiting, to the Super Bowl, to the stock market. And, of course, there are always our trusty end-times predictors, who have a a Bible in one hand and a Fox News report in the other, ready to tell us what the future holds and that the end is near. Or, at least near-er.
When you get down to it, only God knows what's going to happen the next six weeks, or six months, or six years, and I happen to trust His judgment on the issue more than a celebrity groundhog, or even a weather guy with a colorful map behind him. And I hope you will too.
As Corrie ten Boom once said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." That assumes two things, which are both vital for us to understand. The first is, the future is unknown for all of us, even if we think otherwise. You never know what tomorrow holds. But, on the other hand, you can know the God who holds that future in His hands, and He can be trusted.
I am sure you have heard the old saying, "I don't know what the future holds, but I do know Who holds the future." I hope you don't just know about Him, but that you know Him, personally and intimately, as your Lord and Redeemer. Rest in Him, and trust Him with your today, and all of your tomorrows. And whether your life seems sunny, partly cloudy or altogether stormy, He will be there with you.
I am praying for you, as I hope you are for me, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
