Reflections 48 years later

Forty-eight years ago I was in a classroom at William S. Hart High School in Newhall, California.

Can't remember what the class was...

But I do recall a fellow student, Lloyd, rushing in the classroom shouting, "The President's been shot!"

My response?

"What's the punchline?"

But it was not a joke...and we soon learned John F. Kennedy died.

We were soon dismissed, and I and thousands of others ended up on Hollywood Blvd trying to turn tragedy into a party.

I was not a believer at the time...not a believer in anything. I was shocked at his death, but didn't feel it was the end of the world.

But from this vantage point can't help but wonder...

Not wonder if there was a "conspiracy."

Not wonder if Oswald was the lone gunman.

But wonder what would have happened had the assassination not occurred?

What if Camelot had continued?

Where would America be...what would have happened in Vietnam?

And wonder about the "what ifs" of Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy a few years later...

But all the "what ifs" are of little, if any value.

God is sovereign in the affairs of man.

Nothing catches Him by surprise.

The biggest "what if"? What if the Spirit of God had not convicted me of my sin and of the reality of salvation in Christ in 1974?

So I blow off the "what if" in the assurance of God's salvation, planned by the Father, purchased by the Son,  applied by the Spirit...

And though I have no clue what will happen tomorrow...I know He is already there...and He is in control...and He is good...and He is wise.

And for that I am thankful.