Reading in 1 Samuel 1 the other day started me thinking about God’s timing for events in our lives. When I’m waiting a long time for something, or there’s a difficulty in my life, I often ask “Why now?” Usually I can think of a bunch of reasons why now is really a bad time for a trial to enter my life. Or if I’ve been waiting, praying for something for a long time – why won’t the Lord bring it about? It seems like such a good thing – why isn’t now the right time for it?
I don’t think that I’ll get an answer 99% of the times that I ask “Why now?”; most of the time that question seems to be pointless even to ask – like there’s no ultimate reason behind the timing of my waiting or my trial. 1 Samuel 1 and Luke 1 have helped me get a handle on an ultimate perspective on events in my life.
In the end, history is really not about me. I know – that shouldn’t really be a startling revelation. Once I get a handle on what history IS about, the “Why now?” question suddenly gains perspective. History is about God establishing a Kingdom – that’s the ultimate story. The timing of every event in history serves to bring the Kingdom a little closer to its ultimate fulfillment. Events that seem unreasonable and disjointed from an individual perspective begin to flow together when I look at them through the lens of the Kingdom.
Why was Hannah (I Sam. 1:1-5) barren for so many years? It had nothing at all to do with her. She was to be the mother of Samuel, who would deliver a message of judgment to Eli’s family and anoint Israel’s greatest earthly king. These things needed to happen at a certain time – God’s time.
Why was Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-7) barren for so many years? It had nothing at all to do with her. She was to be the mother of John the Baptizer, who would prepare the nation for the Messiah’s coming, who would baptize the Messiah Himself. God had a time, an hour even, planned for His Son to come into the world; therefore, the forerunner had to be born at a certain time. Elizabeth would conceive in God’s time, not hers, to serve a Kingdom purpose.
The stories of Hannah and Elizabeth give me hope when I find myself asking, “Why now?”, or “Why not now?” Although I will probably not ever get an answer to the question, I have confidence that behind the timing of every event in my life there is a Kingdom purpose. Perhaps in eternity, in the Kingdom itself, I’ll see how God has woven thousands of years, billions of lives, trillions of seemingly random and disconnected events, into a flawless tapestry to the praise of the glory of His marvelous grace.
