Exodus 3:13-14
Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO AM.”
Yesterday we talked about time. Today’s Scripture points us to the only time that matters: the present. The ancients tended to be people who worshiped the past and constantly compared it favorably to the present. In many ways, this was wise of them since it kept before their minds the gigantic reality of the Fall and of the constant decline of man in sinfulness. However, the worship of the past also could blind them when God was doing a new thing such as sending a prophet or His own Son. Conversely, we moderns are a people who worship the future and constantly compare it favorably to the present and, most especially, to the past. But God directs us primarily to the present. He names himself I AM not I WILL BE or I WAS. That is, all time is now for him and we, who cannot know all time as now, are bidden by him to pay attention to the bit of “now” that we do have access to. So our sins and glories of the past are best handled here, in the present, with repentance or thanksgiving. Likewise, our wisest response to the future is to abandon all worries about it, make prudent plans, trust Providence, and say, “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Then turn to Jesus who loves you — now — and remain with him moment by moment. Do that and you’ll get to heaven — one day at a time.
