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The After of Afterthoughts




Sometimes, I amaze myself. Well, I do not exactly amaze myself. It's more that I annoy myself. I tend to make rash decisions about what I think is best to do or say in a given situation, and I sometimes have knee-jerk reactions to things I feel strongly about. Before I know it, I mistake my opinions for everyone's preference or, even worse, as fact about what is best. What follows are the dreaded afterthoughts. Why on earth would that be a reasonable response? Where in the world would that have been a good solution to follow? For both questions, the answer is often neither.


How can afterthoughts be a positive move? If time is taken to reflect, think through, and arrive at a conclusion that truly supports or refutes my beliefs about a particular matter maybe they are constructive. Hence, the term afterthought! Yet they can also be a detriment when an immediate response is to jump; no, it's more like a leap right out of my mouth! God's Word encourages us to seek, before we speak, to seek order in our thoughts, which will surely become actions, whether positive or negative. 


What if God had not ordered His plan for creation? What kind of disorganization, lack of harmony, and disarray would His creation have been in? What if He had just decided on a whim to make whatever came to mind with no forethought of the order of His creation during those seven days? I am squirming as I write about the "what if" of the outcome of such actions should that have happened because I know all too well that I do that at times. Yet, God did not. In Revelation, Chapter 4, verse 11, we read that God created all things by His will they came into existence. No afterthoughts there!


All things were created with a specific order and spoken into being with a well-thought-out purpose rather than flippant ideas of what might make a fantastic world. Each part of God's masterpiece was created in preparation for the next part. From the sequential numbering of the days of creation, it is undoubtedly clear that God placed value on order. After all, He knew that Light was the first thing we would need. Something to separate the day from the night. There would need to be a place for his future creation to plant their feet and something above them as well, so he created the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and two lights, the sun, and the moon, to separate the day from the night and creatures that would crawl on the earth, fly in the air and swim in the seas. Then, finally, the day came when all of creation was complete and ready for His beloved, and He created man and a helper to govern His creation and also rest that such a job would definitely demand. This story in Genesis demonstrates God's forethought and his careful order in creation with us in mind, showing His care for all our needs. Truly, there was no afterthought in God's plan, flippant ideas, or knee-jerk reactions, only well-planned plans. God looked at us now, knowing we would live in this physical world He created, but He didn't stop there. He looked ahead even into the most distant future, our eternity with Him, and He sent Jesus to be the firstborn of all creation, the Master Designer, the One who has authority over all creation for both the world we now live in and the eternal one, Heaven that is to come. The One we will always be subject to. Why? Because we were and will always be on His mind. 


"Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will, they existed and were created. 

Revelation 4: 11 NASB


He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together. 

 Colossians 1: 15-17 NASB

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