It’s easy to read the Bible as strictly past tense. After all, it happened thousands of years ago–right? We don’t often think about Abraham’s past, but eternity stretches on either side of Abraham’s personal dot on the timeline of history.

David Ramos’ book, Climbing With Abraham, opens with this unusual observation. Abraham’s future, his influence, is still potent today. And all of history prior to his birth was in some way preparing the earth for his mission–his time and place. Go figure!

… there was a before Abraham and there was an after Abraham, and the same is true for you. Countless stories have taken place to allow you to live at this precise moment in time. Countless more will be written after you are gone …

Your story is part of something much larger. (Day 1, “A Bigger Story,” Climbing With Abraham)

How does that make you feel? Is it a relief to know that nothing you do is actually the “end of the world”? Or, does it bother you to wonder if God simply sees you as a tiny cog in the monstrous “circle of life”?

I just opened David’s book this morning and I’m already cogitating on this little nugget. What does this finite moment of my forever future (praise God who has given eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ–John 3:16) mean for everyone who comes after me? Will it mean anything?

The only way my speck-story on the timeline of history will mean anything at all is if I understand everything that led up to me. In all that God has done to this day, He kept in mind His intention of creating me–Abby Kelly.

To glance briefly at this truth echoed in the life of another Old Testament character, see Esther and the wisdom one of her one predecessors spoke into her life:

“And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

What will you do with your past?