Afterward You Will Understand

"What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand" (John 13:7).

At the time Peter could not comprehend why Jesus wanted to wash his feet. Later, when he heard the rooster crow, perhaps then Peter understood the servile act his Lord bestowed upon all the apostles, including the one who was about to betray Him. Peter may have thought, "What are we, O Master, that you are so mindful of us that you become our servant? Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man." (Hebrews 2:6; Luke 5:8)

The great promise in John 13:7 is that one day we will understand what bewilders and frustrates us so now. In our lives confusing events shatter our comfortable existence and we are forced to trust in something that makes absolutely no sense to us but, to God, it is another part of the puzzle that He is piecing together for us. Faith is the only glue that holds together our fragmented hearts. We must know without a doubt that our Father views the summation of our life with the eye and heart of His omniscience. When our world seems to be crashing, He whispers to us, "Trust that I know what I am doing, and that you, too, shall know in My good time."

"By faith Abraham. . .obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going" (Hebrews 11:8). This great patriarch of faith stepped into the unfamiliar. "They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance" (Hebrews 11:13b). The faithful do not always realize what they think God has promised them. The promise to Abraham of entering Canaan never happened and it wasn't a broken promise. God drew a different and better blueprint for Abraham, that of the "city without foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10). And Abraham walked in faith to the heavenly city.