A common science fiction trope is time travel. The ability to go back into the past to fix what went wrong or to go into the future to escape current woes stirs the imagination. The Bible includes its own version of time travel. The Book of Daniel looks at past events and sees in the them the plan of God leading to a glorious future. In the gospels Jesus talks about the future triumph of God as the source of hope in current trials. This raises a question in his listeners: Then they asked him, “Teacher, when will this happen?” Jesus basically said that “when” is the wrong question. FIt might cause you to chase whatever rabbit is leading you on a merry chase. Instead, Jesus says, be faithful to today no matter what the disasters around you with the blessed assurance in the plan of God for the world. We can translate that to our experience by accepting that we know one thing with absolute certainty about the future: that we shall die. That reality is not meant to daunt us but to focus our energies. We should live each day with fidelity knowing that eventually we fall into the hands of God.
