We’re waiting for the arrival of our first grandbaby.  My oldest daughter Ashley’s due date was 5 days ago.  We’d hoped to be traveling the five hours to the Cities to welcome our little Calvin Taylor, but instead we’re still waiting.  I realize though that Calvin is right on time and our good God has been keeping the comings in and the goings out of mankind for many millennia now.

Our oldest son, Seth, just graduated a week ago today as an illustration major from MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and we’re also preparing for my youngest daughter Courtney’s high school graduation next week.  As we approach and pass these mile-marker in our lives, we begin to see our days pass before our eyes in snapshots, all the highs and all the lows, all the joys and all the fears.

So as we watch our son face a new direction, as we prepare to send our daughter out into the great wide world and as we wait to welcome a new generation into the world, there is a very real temptation to get a jump on things and begin to worry right away for the futures of those in our spheres of influence.

After all there’s so much that would lend itself to worry: Ashley’s safe delivery; Calvin’s safe arrival; Ashley and Andrew’s new life as parents; Ashley’s student teaching next fall with a new baby; Ashley’s student teaching placements and advising teachers; Andrew’s new job beginning in June; Seth’s future employments; our second son Bryce’s search for summer employment; Seth and Bryce’s recent attachments; was it best for Courtney to pursue an associate Bible degree before her career degree; how will she pay her expenses next year; how will any of them–Ashley and Andrew with a new baby, Seth with new adult expenses, Bryce and Courtney in college–pay their expenses.

Then there’s Dana and my own situations to worry about: what will empty-nesting mean for us; I’m gladly moving from teaching 2nd to 3rd grade next year, but will that mean another two years of getting home from work well into the evenings as I develop new curriculum for this new grade; Dana’s business which has struggled since the economy crisis began in 2008; our health as we get older; the health and well-being of our dads…

It’s plain to see…if I don’t begin worrying now, how will we survive?!?!?

Then every once in awhile, like Prince Rilian in the Narnian Chronicle, The Silver Chair, I enter my right mind and am gratefully reminded of John Piper’s teachings on Future Grace and specifically his declaration that “anxiety is inadequate faith in our Father’s future grace.”  I pray that God will help my unbelief and grant me faith and peace in the grace that will await us in our futures (my own, my children’s, and in my grandchildren’s futures).  Praise be to God who is always working on behalf of his redeemed for our good and his glory.  This propitious God will have his grace waiting for us in that big nebulous near and faraway we call the future…even over the horizon.