The Vision is Yet for an Appointed Time: Thanksgiving musings 11-27-25

The words drift through on the lilt of the melody… “And the people sing, Holy! To the King of kings, Holy! You are lifted high, Holy! Holy Forever!” As I drift from asleep to awake, verses flow from two different books, “Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up; Do you not perceive it? …” (Isa. 43:19) and “For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Hab. 2:3)

These verses remind me that I have had “visions”, dreams of things that would be, that weren’t yet, and then did “surely come”. God had warned me in a dream, sometimes years earlier, about something that was ahead of me, “for an appointed time”. Re-Minding. Re-membering. Re-collecting… we have been using these words at the prayer dock these past few mornings to add intentionality to noticing, focusing on, and taking thoughts captive. And, more than that: allowing God to give us deeper insight into things He spoke to us during the day, and then elaborates on “in the night watches”. In the middle of the night while we are free from distraction, He can – and does - teach us and transform our thinking on a completely different level… “now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Some people call it deja vu. Others have dreams in the night – vividly remembered or fleeting and faded – that later come true. In those moments it seems to “happen again”, we chalk it up to something other than God giving us divine insight into something He’s about to do… and then it happens and we know – “Your ways are higher than our ways, and Your thoughts than our thoughts” Lord. (Isa 55:9)

The most vivid of my foretellings was delayed 4 years, but it did “surely come”. As I re-member, far from the first time I’ve thought or talked about this, God re-minds me, but this time with insight into motive I hadn’t attached to it before. When my dad responded the way he did to my violating curfew when I was 16, it was because he was scared, not merely angry or disregulated. That insight brings unexpected empathy, and triggers another memory where an expected confrontation didn’t happen because of his fear in a situation where I anticipated being defended. In my head, his fawning response of nervous laughter, was mis-interpreted as disregard for me of what was done by someone else. In this moment I realize I had accepted the enemy’s accusation against him, because it was hidden under the radar in blame and misdirection. My dad had confronted this person, but chose not to escalate it. The fact that he brought it up at all was sufficient warning, insuring "it wouldn't happen again".

This is not the first time God has corrected my understanding on past assumptions – setting me free from the pain of familial drama and revealing redemptive motivations that just seemed so wrong at the time. It softens the blow, giving cushion and comfort to old wounds. Now they can heal.

So as I get ready to clean, cook, and prepare for the Thanksgiving meal with my daughter’s family today, followed by the opportunity to get together with my brother’s and sisters’ families for dessert later in the day, I pray for deeper insight into other mis-assigned motives that have unnecessarily created pain through misunderstanding . Lord open our eyes to Truth - and Your invitation to healing.

The words of St. Francis of Assisi’s prayer waft through my heart as I pray these words over all of us this holiday - and every day: “Make me a channel of Your Peace, where there is hatred let me sow Your love, where there in injury Your pardon Lord, and where there’s doubt true faith in You. Make me a channel of Your Peace. Where there’s despair in life let me bring hope. Where there is darkness, only light, and where there’s sadness ever joy. O Master grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love with all my soul! Make me a channel of Your Peace. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, In giving to all men that we receive and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.” Lord help us surrender past pain and misunderstandings to You, in faith and curiosity, that we may be healed and re-stored to vibrant and encouraging community with one another! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!