praying past tense

Lewis tells us about one of the effects of God being outside of space and time today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He says that we can pray for things in the past. And that sounds odd, I know. But I definitely believe it's true, and I do it pretty often.

Sometimes it will be afternoon, and I'll suddenly remember that a friend asked me to pray for something they did that morning. I'll still pray, since God isn't limited by time and can still answer my prayer.

I have felt like I should pray for Jesus on the cross.

I think that both God and, therefore, prayer, exist outside not only of time, but of our capacity to understand how they work. His ways are above our ways. We know we can trust Him, and we should love Him. But we are, and probably will always be, incapable of understanding Him.

That's a comfort to me. If I could understand Him, it might be more difficult for me to trust Him. Sound paradoxical? Well, I trust a man who is far stronger than I am to pull me up out of a pit. And I trust God, who is far beyond all I can imagine or understand, to always take care of me when I need Him.

God, thanks for being outside of our ability to grasp.