I will see

A parent shared on social media how her young son would declare with confidence the things that he’d like to be true about their day: ‘Today we will see a fire truck!’ She wondered why he felt able to make such predictions. An insightful commenter suggested that the two-year-old was always hearing his mum make apparently similar declarations: ‘Today we will go to the grocery store.’ Since his mum’s predictions always seemed to come true, he was simply copying her method.

We adults may smile at the boy’s naivety, knowing that there is a world of difference between a plan to go shopping, and a hope for something out of our control. But faith, like that expressed in these final verses of Psalm 27, invites us to reconsider whether the contrast is quite so black and white.

On the one hand, we usually have less control over our plans than we think; James 4:13-15 cautions against too much confidence in our own capacity to plan our lives. On the other hand, biblical hope is far more certain than wishful thinking. The Psalmist is able to make his bold declaration from the midst of difficult circumstances, not because the circumstances are within his control but because he knows and trusts the character of God.

God of tomorrow, thank you that you hold our futures in your hand. Help me to hold on to my plans lightly, and whenever circumstances seem bleak, to put my trust in your goodness again. Amen.