“Tomorrow” is an interesting concept.

It can fill my heart with anticipation; it can rev up my imagination, my mind flashing with its own renderings of what will happen. I think someone has written a song about this: “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow – you’re only a day away!” Thanks, Annie.

The thing is, if I think about “tomorrow” too much, something else happens: I freak out. Anyone with me on this?

The truth is, from my cosmic position, tomorrow is a total unknown. There is no way to know what will wash up on the shore of the morning. Again – if I think too hard about it – an unsettling reality settles into my soul: just about anything could happen.

Earthquake? In Michigan, unlikely – but not entirely impossible. Aliens? Less likely than the earthquake, but if all those declassified videos have anything to say about it…not impossible either, apparently.

Alright, I admit those are ridiculous examples. Let’s get terrifyingly down-to-earth: One of my little kids gets really sick? Sure, that could happen. They’re walking petri dishes, basically. My car breaks down in such a way that it will cost me a bunch of money I don’t have? Yeah, that’s right in the bullseye of the “could happen” board (my car is making an odd noise as we speak..shhh, don’t talk about it). A terrible accident that results in my death? Reluctantly, I have to say that’s entirely possible as well.

“Tomorrow” isn’t feeling so “Annie-ish” to me anymore. “You’re only a day away…” Yikes. I’m good with today, thanks.

Today had some trouble in it to be sure, but all-in-all, today was a good one. I liked today. And right near the end, today served up a little surprise: a lesson about tomorrow.

Right now, I’m reading through Joshua. And today’s reading came from Joshua 3, when God is leading the Israelites across the river Jordan. As Joshua is preparing them to make this journey the next day, he says something powerful and pregnant with meaning: “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” (Joshua 3:5). “Tomorrow” doesn’t sound so bad here, does it? There’s a reason for that.

Joshua’s not done. He then tells his people, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you…see, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you.” (Joshua 3:10-11) Alright, don’t miss this: Joshua (inspired by God, of course) is giving his people a proof – a piece of evidence – so that they will know God is present with them: He will go ahead of them into the river. Essentially, he’s saying: you can be confident God is with you today because He is already in tomorrow.

God is always WAY ahead of us. He commands us to go somewhere, and when we get there, we discover He’s already been there long before us, doing His work. He does this all the time. He went ahead of the Israelites in the wilderness (Ex. 13), He went ahead of them into the promised land (Deut. 1) and here – once again – He goes ahead of them across the river into Jericho. God might command us to go to a lot of places and do a lot of things, but He has yet to tell us to go somewhere He hasn’t already gone to or do something He Himself hasn’t already done (including – amazingly – to die).

For the Israelites in this story, “tomorrow” was crossing the river Jordan. They didn’t know how it would go. They only knew God was with them because they could see he was already ahead of them. He was already in “tomorrow.” They never could have known that “tomorrow” would mean the flood-stage river stopping in its tracks. Joshua was right: amazing.

For us, “tomorrow” is another day of running our kids around. It’s another day of retirement, wondering how long the money will last and how long the good health will hold. It’s another work day doing a job we’d rather not do for pay that isn’t quite enough. And those are the things we know about. But for us, “tomorrow” is also heavy with uncertainty. It is unknown. It is looming. And it is wild.

But not for Him. 2 Peter 8 says, “…with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” This verse is God’s reminder to us that He exists outside of time. We are bound by time, but time is bound by Him. What does this mean?

It means that God doesn’t simply know what will happen tomorrow. And it’s not merely that He is in control of what will happen tomorrow (He is). It’s more astonishing than that. He is already there. His work there has already happened. We experience time sequentially. God experiences time in one, staggering act of sovereign cognition. He has willed “tomorrow.” He has seen it. He has worked it out. We need only be faithful and figure out what God has already figured out.

“Tomorrow” may be unknown to us, but God is already in “tomorrow.” He’s working in tomorrow. He’s making moves for you. He’s preparing the ground for you to walk on. He’s making a path for you. He is preparing good works for you to do. He is already in tomorrow. So don’t fear it. Walk into the river bed with confidence.

And watch Him do what He does. It will be amazing.

psl