If I Knew Then What I Know Now: What Questions Should You Have Asked Mom?

Recently, my mom came to visit my family and I. I was reading her some things I have written and she, as most mom’s do, was remarking on how well it was written and how helpful it was. In the course of one conversation she reminded me of how she used to encourage my brother and I to create birthday or mother’s day cards for her instead of trying to buy them. She said when we did this I was always the one who wrote them. She also said that when we went to church I was always the one taking notes. She even told me that even when I was twelve I used to teach her and speak words of encouragement to her and my brother when the situation required it. She said, “The signs were always there that you would be a speaker and a writer.” Although I don’t remember all of the things that she remembered, it is clear that God was revealing some attributes about my purpose at a very young age. What if I knew then what I know now?

Hindsight is almost always perfect. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have a videographer that follows us every day of our lives. This means we can’t easily go back and watch ourselves at age 12 or age 7. If we have family around who are able to help us recall the actions we took, words we spoke, and prowess we exhibited at various points in our lives we would be better able to understand the purpose we have in life. Imagine if you had a chart on your computer that specified what you excelled in, what talents you seemed to have and when they first presented themselves, and what obstacles you seemed to handle easily despite being young. How beneficial would that be? How much of an aid would that be in guiding you into the life that you were destined to live?

Although, I can’t give you this chart or tell you the best way to get it aside from asking your parents in depth questions about who you were as a child I can tell you that nothing exists in isolation. Psalm 139:14-16 reads, “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” This means that the fact that you were the one to stand up for a kid being bullied at age 8 matters. It also matters that at age 5 you demonstrated an aptitude for writing. Likewise, it matters if at age 11 you fell in love with the Bible and the God of it.

The passage says that you and I were fearfully and wonderfully made and that our days have been fashioned for us. However, sadly we often simply exist through the day with no idea of what that particular day was fashioned to reveal to us or about us. I don’t believe that a God that is so specific about not only how He fashioned us, but about the days He fashioned us for, would be any less specific about the purpose He fashioned within us.

In apologetics there is a prominent concept known as the ‘fine-tuning of the universe’ that provides overwhelming evidence that God designed this universe with tremendous precision. For example, if the universe expanded at a rate 1 millionth more slowly, expansion would have stopped and the universe would have collapsed before any stars had formed. If it went faster, no galaxies would have formed. If the rotation of the earth took longer than 24 hours, temperature differences between day and night would be too extreme. If the day were shorter, atmospheric wind velocities would be too great. The 23-degree axil tilt of the earth is also precise. If it were altered slightly, surface temperatures would be too extreme on earth. Although we weren’t there to see these mechanisms put in place, our understanding of them gives us a clearer understanding of God, as Creator of the universe.

You may not remember what you did or who you were at every stage of your development but if you do some research you may find that you will gain valuable insight as to the purpose you have unknowingly been preparing for all of your life. Your future is in your past if you seek it in your present.