It is New Year’s Day. The past is behind us, the present among us, and the future before us.

Ah, but what about Ebenezer Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Future?

The Ghost is robed and silent as it escorts Scrooge to scenes from the future. It shows him conversations of businessmen, ones Scrooge are familiar with, discussing the death of a man lightly and with little favor. He is then shown thieves selling the property of a dead men, rationalizing that there is little respect needed in death for one who didn’t gain it in life.

When Scrooge asks to see tenderness in connection with the man’s death, he is shown an indebted couple who are relieved at hearing their deadline has been pushed back, due to the man’s death, long enough to gather the necessary payment due. When asked to see tenderness in connection to any death, he is shown the Cratchit family soon after the death of Tiny Tim.

The final place Scrooge is taken to is the grave of the man of whom he has heard so much about from so many different people. Upon seeing the inscription on the gravestone, he learns that it is his own.

He begs for mercy, pity, and hope, clutching onto the one part of the spectre that is revealed: a hand. Then, the Ghost disappears and Scrooge finds himself in his room, alive and on Christmas morning.

On this day of remembrance of the past, as you find yourself facing the Future, what do you feel? Excitement? Fear? Remorse?

The Ghost of Christmas Future comes in the form of a shrouded figure that gives no indication of feature or stature with only a hand as a guide for Scrooge. It is Mystery personified.

Do you feel as if you are being guided into 2018 by only the general gesturing of something you don’t understand? Do you feel lost and confused, treading as if the clues you are given won’t bring clarity until it is too late?

The Future is unknown, it’s strange, but it is not out to harm you. It is merely the destination of the path you lay in Today.

Notice the legacy that Scrooge left behind, the reaction of his death from those lives he touched: Relief, Nonchalance, even Gladness. Scrooge, if continued down the path he had been laying for decades, would have left a poor legacy.

What would people say of you after death, if you continued down the way you walk? Would they miss you? Would they mourn you? Would they, when remembering you, smile or laugh at the sweet memories you left in your wake?

Or, would the harm that you dealt them in life finally be relieved by your death? Would the unspoken apologies fester in the wounds left unhealed? Would they have to think hard for something positive to say at your funeral?

Regret is an ugly emotion. While Scrooge would be able to change what he did in Today and Tomorrow, he knew Yesterday was out of his reach. This didn’t dissuade him from changing the things that he could however. If you want to hear about what he did, you’ll just have to wait for tomorrow’s post.

I don’t fear the Future, not regularly anyways. There have been moments that I’ve cried out “Why?”, “How?”, “When”, and the like. There have been times where the vision I had painted for my future fractured before me, leaving me lost and clutching onto shards of my fantastical hopes. There have been disappointments and failures speckling my life, just like any and every other.

Yet, I don’t cry out to an abyss for answers. I don’t look within myself to seek something new to hope in. No, I cry out to Him. To God. To the one who knows my Future now and knew it when He thought of me. To the one I do not fear because He is my utmost good. To the one who will be just as with me in 2018 as He was in 2017.

Tomorrow is the last installment and the culmination of this series. We will see how Scrooge treats the second chance he’s been given and what we can learn from it ourselves. Stay tuned.